The world food crisis distresses me and I do everything to fight !!
What is the use of the International Monetary Fund that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, supported by Nicolas Sarkozy in the name of openness, is about to manage? For the politician who has not entirely given up on a national ambition, we can clearly see the interest. Crowned with the prestige attached to the institution born of the Bretton Woods agreements, had the former German director general Horst Köhler shortened his mandate in 2004 to become ... president of the Federal Republic? We cannot therefore swear that the unsuccessful candidate for the socialist presidential candidacy will not follow the same path by 2012, when his five-year term expires.
But apart from serving the personal destiny of its managing director, two obviously more fundamental questions arise: is the IMF useful? And if so, is it legitimate? In recent years, voices have been raised, especially in developing countries, to answer no to both questions. The credibility of the institution was undermined during the Asian crisis of 1997 and especially of the financial debacle of Argentina in 2001. The "remedies" of the doctors of Washington were considered worse than the evil, sometimes rightly so. Thus, the adversaries of the IMF are not reduced to the alliance of the "idiots of the global village", namely the most ultra wing of the American Republican Party and the European alter-globalists who commune for its pure and simple suppression. Substantial criticism comes more seriously from Asian and Latin American leaders who have some good reasons to wonder about the role, governance, even the geopolitical ulterior motives of the IMF.
DSK's particularly effective campaign around the world since the end of July has enabled it to respond to criticism of the institution's legitimacy. The Fund, he rightly argued, can no longer function as if economic geography had not changed since the end of the Second World War. It will therefore be necessary to increase the “quotas” of emerging countries, from India to China and Brazil, within an institution still dominated by its first shareholder, the United States. The message is well passed in developing countries, less well, we suspect, in Europe, since the Old Continent will necessarily lose in this redistribution of cards.
There remains the first question, that of the usefulness of the IMF. Asian countries, led by China, are teeming with liquidity. Argentina has repaid its debts. In the absence of a country to lend its funds to, the IMF sees its income fall; its teams are threatened with technical unemployment. And in the financial crisis we are going through, it is the central banks, not the Fund, that play the role of firefighter.
However, the Fund still has a role to play, as international financial imbalances pose major economic and commercial risks for the world economy. One of the biggest sources of imbalances, as we know, comes from the undervaluation of the Chinese currency. However, in the current state of its dependence on the United States, the IMF cannot say. The whole challenge of DSK is to restore to the institution its lost legitimacy, failing which it risks losing its usefulness forever.
What is the IMF for?
What is the IMF doing?
How does the IMF help in a crisis?
Who is the IMF?
and then :
Thinking globally: how to understand the economic interdependence of nations
Lessons 1 and 2 focus on the IMF and its role in the global economy.
Lessons 3 to 8 on trade, international organizations, currencies and foreign exchange markets are based on lesson plans already published by the NCEE.
delnoram wrote:I'm going to play devil's advocate, after all it just happened.
And I'm going to make a pasted copy of what we often heard a year and a half ago: give it time.
Maybe he really thinks to move the IMF, although in my opinion he risks if this is the case to quickly disillusion.
IMF boss investigated for abuse of power in sex case
The director of the International Monetary Fund is suspected of having had a relationship with Piroska Nagy, a former senior Hungarian-born official in the IMF's Africa department and married, and of having shown favoritism towards them. DSK denies: "At no time did I abuse my position as director of the fund," he says.
Back to "Media & News: TV shows, reports, books, news ..."
Users browsing this forum : No registered users and 274 guests
That DSK has doubled his pay as director of the IMF, by taking the post, is not scandalous, there! ..