Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: beginning of the end?

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Devine wrote:

> notable is the absence of an international lender of the last
> resort, or even an international central banker concerned with the
> health of the world economy but without l-o-l-r facility. The IMF
> acts instead as a creditors' cartel, so the closest to playing this
> role is Alan the G and informal contacts with other CBers.

Well, what's that, chopped liver? It's a bit of an understatement to
describe the consultations of CBers as "informal" - they G10 have
monthly meetings at the BIS, and no doubt all kinds of crisis
strategies worked out. And while the IMF does exist to protect
creditors, it has acted as a focal point at least since the debt
crisis broke out in 1982 for CBers and finance ministers to
coordinate rescue strategies. They can't prevent global recessions,
but they have repeatedly kept financial panics from turning into
generalized meltdowns (and in shifting the costs of adjustment onto
the poor and weak).

Doug