The
best people that could compete for the leadership of the IMF, following
Christine Lagarde's departure, are not from Europe. They are from Mexico –
Agustin Carsten, who is currently the General Manager of the International
Bank of Settlements –, from Singapore –Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Chairman of the
Singapore Monetary Authority and Senior Minister –, and from India – Raghuram
Rajan, former Governor of the Indian Central Bank. These three are head and shoulders above the
names the European are putting forward as their candidates. In a better system
of global governance, one of them should be the next Managing Director of the IMF.
But,
again, it will be a European. This has been the game for the last seven
decades. The US gets the top job at the World Bank and Europe goes for the IMF.
The European will be chosen because of EU’s political considerations – the
balance between the different regions of the Union – and that will be it. It
might end up by being someone competent. But certainly, if we give credence to the
short list that is under consideration, an intellectual pygmy compared with the
names I mention above, from other parts of the globe.
This
would have been an opportunity for the EU to show to the world that it means
business when it talks about the reform and the strengthening of the institutions
of global governance. But the EU leaders do not want to walk the talk. They prefer
a narrower view and respond to their EU internal politics first.
It
is a bit of a shame, isn’t it?
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