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The nations of the developed world have responded to the covid-19 crisis by supporting their domestic economies and financial systems in bold and unprecedented ways, and at a scale that would have been unimaginable three months ago.

In contrast, when the world’s finance and central bank governors convene virtually this week for the semiannual International Monetary Fund-World Bank meetings, there will be steps taken to fortify the international system, but nothing comparable to what countries are doing domestically.

Historians such as Charles Kindleberger have argued convincingly that it was a failure of international cooperation that made the Depression “great.” And even when there has been coordinated action in response to the crises that have come since, more often than not it has come after huge human cost.…  Seguir leyendo »

John Maynard Keynes with US treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau at Bretton Woods in 1944. Now is the time to mobilize. Photograph: Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, will step down on 1 February – three and a half years before the end of his term – in search of greener pastures. His readiness to resign from the leadership of one the two most powerful international financial institutions is a worrying omen. But it is also an important wake-up call.

The World Bank and the IMF are the last remaining columns of the Bretton Woods edifice under which capitalism experienced its golden age in the 1950s and 1960s. While that system, and the fixed exchange rate regime it relied upon, bit the dust in 1971, the two institutions continued to support global finance along purely Atlanticist lines: with Europe’s establishment choosing the IMF’s managing director and the United States selecting the head of the World Bank.…  Seguir leyendo »

Hace algunos años habría sido difícil imaginarse a Cuba golpeando a las puertas del Banco Mundial y el Fondo Monetario Internacional. Hoy, con el restablecimiento de las relaciones diplomáticas de Estados Unidos con la isla después de más de medio siglo de enemistad, parece una cuestión de tiempo que ingrese a ambas instituciones para beneficio de todas las partes.

Ser miembro del FMI es uno de los requisitos para unirse al Banco Mundial, y son fáciles de ver las ventajas que ganaría Cuba con ello. El país siente un legítimo orgullo por sus logros sociales, pero será necesario que su economía crezca para que se sostengan en el tiempo, lo que tendrá que fomentar profundizando las reformas económicas que ya ha iniciado, haciendo frente a su obsolescencia tecnológica y modernizando su infraestructura pública.…  Seguir leyendo »

El mundo ha cambiado considerablemente desde que los líderes políticos de 44 países aliados se reunieron en 1944 en Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, con el objetivo de crear un marco institucional para el orden económico y monetario luego de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Lo que no ha cambiado en los últimos 70 años es la necesidad de instituciones multilaterales fuertes. Sin embargo, el respaldo político nacional a las instituciones de Bretton Woods -el Fondo Monetario Internacional y el Banco Mundial- parece haber alcanzado un mínimo histórico, lo que mina la capacidad de la economía global de alcanzar su potencial y contribuye a la inseguridad geopolítica.…  Seguir leyendo »

President Obama recently nominated Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth, to be the next president of the World Bank — a privilege accorded to the United States since the bank’s founding in 1946. A European, in turn, gets to run the International Monetary Fund.

In the wake of World War II, such a divvying up of the top spots among the great powers was inevitable. But how did the United States, the primary founder and financer of the two institutions, wind up taking the helm of the World Bank, and not the I.M.F., which was of vastly greater importance to its government?…  Seguir leyendo »