Central Bankers Read Election Returns, not Balance Sheets

Abstract

For most of the last few years, finance ministers of the world have been pursuing the grail of monetary reform. They have met each other at the annual autumnal meetings of the IMF and at the interim committee meetings every spring, at the monthly meetings of BIS, at the ad hoc meetings of the OECD, at the Group of Ten and the Committee of Twenty, at UNCTAD (United Nations Committee on Trade and Development) in New York and Geneva. The finance ministers of the member countries of the European Union have met in the headquarters of the union in Brussels and on a rotational basis in various national capitals. The presidents and prime ministers of the United States, Germany, Japan, Canada, Britain, France, and Italy have met at Vancouver, Denver, Rambouillet, Puerto Rico, London, Bonn, Tokyo, Ottawa, Versailles, and Williamsburg at annual summit meetings. There have been scores of meetings on a bilateral basis. The prize remains elusive.