Financial storm clouds cast deep shadow over IMF summit
Markets are diving, Germany and the eurozone are weak and there is
alarm over Ebola and a potential banking bubble, so the themes were
sombre when the IMF and World Bank met in Washington last week. Six
years ago, finance ministers and Central Bank governors gathered in
Washington for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund
with the global financial system teetering on the brink.
It was less than a month since the collapse of the US investment bank
Lehman Brothers and in the aftermath no institution, however big and
powerful, looked safe.
They put together a co-ordinated plan to rescue ailing banks. This
was followed by further joint moves when the drying up of credit flows
plunged the world economy into recession. |