IMF chief’s press conference

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn just wrapped up his news conference at the start of this year’s IMF/World Bank spring meetings. A few notable points: -He warned repeatedly about the dangers of complacency. "We’re still in a crisis," he said in response to a question.  -Strauss-Kahn called President Obama’s recent speech on tackling the ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn just wrapped up his news conference at the start of this year's IMF/World Bank spring meetings. A few notable points:

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn just wrapped up his news conference at the start of this year’s IMF/World Bank spring meetings. A few notable points:

-He warned repeatedly about the dangers of complacency. "We’re still in a crisis," he said in response to a question. 

-Strauss-Kahn called President Obama’s recent speech on tackling the debt "very welcome."

-He insisted that the Greek recovery program can still work, although he acknowledged that certain aspects of the bailout have not worked as well as expected. He again chided Europe for approaching the debt problem in a piecemeal fashion and acknowledged that collecting tax revenue remains a significant problem for Greece. While he maintained a brave face, Strauss-Kahn’s tone on Greece was very different from the almost boisterous confidence he exhibited at last year’s meeting, when he lavished praise on Greece’s finance minister. 

-He worried repeatedly about the lack of jobs associated with the recovery, at one point reprising former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s "jobs, jobs, jobs" statement. He linked the recent turmoil in Egypt and Tunisia to the absence of jobs and noted that countries can have a solid macroeconomic profile without producing enough employment. "You can have decent growth without having decent jobs."

-He defended the IMF’s decision to endorse the use of previously anathema capital controls in certain situations. "Capital controls are in the toolbox," he insisted.  Strauss-Kahn expressed some surprise at the dogmatism of certain IMF shareholders on this question, describing them as "more Catholic than the pope."

-One impertinent French journalist did ask Strauss-Kahn about his own political future, but the managing director adroitly ducked the question (in both French and English). 

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

Tag: IMF

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