Thursday, April 10, 2014

More Frustration but no answers on IMF reforms

This article in the Financial Times updates us to say that there is massive frustration but no agreement on what to do about lack of US approval of the IMF reforms. Here is the article.


A few key points:

-frustration continues to grow

-even Australia is talking about bypassing the US

-Christine Lagarde is not ready to go the route of bypassing the US (what she calls Plan B)

-the article points out that right now approval in this US election year seems unlikely


There are hints in this article that some kind of effort to bypass the US within the IMF is being discussed. Lagarde seems worried about that prospect. The potential for this to break down into a major global dispute seems possible here. If that happens, I think the more likely outcome will be the BRIC nations moving forward on their own outside the IMF to bypass the the US dollar and to setup global financial institutions that do not need US approval.

All this could certainly lead to disruption in the currency markets and the US dollar at some point. If they cool down, they may just decide to wait out the US Congress another year. We'll follow it here.




No comments:

Post a Comment