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Last fall, some of those same Western nations helped elect Youssef chairman of the International Monetary Fund's policymaking committee, giving him a powerful voice in determining the IMF's role in the global economic crisis. It's the first time a non-Westerner has held the job, and Boutros-Ghali knows he carries the developing world's expectations. His main task, he says, is to get the IMF to better understand its borrowers. "[I've] experienced the pointy end of IMF policies," he says. "I bring a view different from a G-7 Finance Minister. I am sensitive...
...that often eluded his uncle, a dour and sometimes acerbic figure who clashed publicly with the U.S. over the Balkan wars, the genocide in Rwanda and Washington's unpaid U.N. dues. "My uncle tends to more public display, he tends to be more blunt," Boutros-Ghali says. "[At the IMF] different things are at stake. I will pound my fists in a closed room; there's nothing to be gained from doing it in public...
That prudence was one of several qualities that won Boutros-Ghali the IMF job. His track record as Egypt's Finance Minister was another: under him, the notoriously sclerotic Arab nation has grown at an annual rate of 7%. "He's seen as a facilitator, somebody who can generate progress," says Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University and former head of the IMF's China division. "In Egypt, he's been able to operate under significant institutional and political constraints - that's valuable experience when you're dealing with the IMF...
Already, the IMF has recommended that European regulators follow the U.S.'s lead and run stress tests on their banks. And there are hints from the Federal Reserve that at least some aspects of the stress tests will become part of the ongoing regulatory system. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that the stress tests were "an enlightening exercise that will improve the tool kit we use to help ensure the safety and soundness not just of individual firms but of the financial system more broadly...
...IMF Loans Peter Gumbel's "IMF 2.0" fully captures the sentiment and distrust of developing economies toward the IMF, and the negative impact on people's lives of corrupt and inept government officials' dealings with the IMF [April 20]. Certain governments in Africa took IMF loans on behalf of their people who then suffered the debt with neither accountability nor the hoped for development. Now the loan conditions are being relaxed, the IMF must ensure that loans do not get to corrupt governments anymore, and where they do, the loans must be accounted for with development projects and fiscal responsibility...