The Last European: Why the G-20 Was a Success

The only real news is the support shown by the G-20 for the I.M.F. The headline is obviously the extra money that the I.M.F. will have — up from $250 billion to around $1trillion in effective lendable resources; finally, enough to begin to make aglobal difference. Most of the press coverage stops with this point, but all this extra money is helpful only if it gets lent out.

The best way to enhance the I.M.F.’s legitimacy would be to give middle- and lower-income countries a greater role in its governance (more votes or more seats on the board or both), but progress on this front remains glacial; European countries in particular are unwilling to give up their long-standing over-representation.

The managing director of the I.M.F. is very powerful, with a great deal of authority and discretion, and has always been a European — in effect, appointed by European governments to represent their interests. The G-20 made it clear that this will stop — the communiqué says the selection process will be open, transparent and competitive. But really this is code for saying they will pick someone from an emerging-market country, such as India orBrazil (and there are some excellent candidates). The right person in this jobcould have a huge positive effect on the I.M.F.’s legitimacy.

To make things matters more interesting, the I.M.F.’s managing director isexpected by insiders to resign within a year, to resume his (promising)pursuit of the French presidency. The leadership race for the next managing director effectively starts today; the stakes are high, and competition will be intense.

How did the Obama administration pull this off? In a brilliant move, they took the lead by volunteering to open up the selection process for the World Bank, the I.M.F.’s sister organization, which has always been run by an American. The next president of the World Bank is very likely to be Chinese.

美国反对建立跨国际的金融监管机构，特别是对hedge fund的监管。L.O.summers从hedge funds获得了几百万美金的报酬。