Comments by Joan Veon: Usually at the end of a G7 press briefing, the room is packed full. This one had more security than reporters. It was very unusual. Furthermore, they did not ask for press names and the person with the microphone did not get close enough to the reporter asking the question so everyone could hear. This is NOT how U.S. Treasury press briefing are and all of the key people were there to set it up. Snow appeared very unsettled and appeared to want to go through the motions and “get it done.” Where was the rest of the press? Good question. The Reform of the IMF is pretty major. Phrases of interest are highlighted.

In January, the Bank for International Settlements chief economist, William White wrote a white paper of his own calling for a return to the gold standard or global or regional currencies to help with global imbalances and for the IMF to have the power of surveillance over a country’s finances even if it means losing part of their national sovereignty.

This IMF/World Bank meeting was extremely historic because it, in essence, gave the IMF more power than ever before in its history. Part of the crescendo in this opera was the fact that everyone was calling for a greater supervisory role for the IMF. The white papers, the discussion, the agenda, the objective of the meeting was simply to use “global imbalances” to take more financial sovereignty that ever before. The chief economist of the IMF said this, “People tend to dismiss these [role of various actors today] as minor frictions, sand in the gears of the globalization juggernaut. History, however, suggests there is a short distance from economic patriotism to unbridled nationalism. This is why the multilateral discussions in meetings like this are so important. They help ensure we continue to benefit from globalization in an atmosphere of mutual responsibility and shared destiny.”