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In RealTime posts, PIIE senior staff and colleagues discuss the fast-moving economic news, financial developments, and public policy choices confronting the United States and the world.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) needs a managing director to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Reaching a decision will not be as neat and tidy as some of my think-tank colleagues would like it to be. But the process promises to be open with several prominent, plausible candidates, including one from Europe who is expected to be [...]
The killing of Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on the night of May 2 has raised a host of questions about the implications of the operation for Pakistan. First, for the United States the main question is how the most wanted terrorist in the world could have hidden "in plain sight" in Pakistan for [...]
While much of the financial world has focused recently on the upheaval at the International Monetary Fund, a series of other events in Europe this week brought additional uncertainty to the circumstances surrounding the continuation of the Greek bailout program after 2012. A cacophony of opposing public statements is inevitable when multiple democratically elected policymakers [...]
The promising Arab Spring has left North Africa in limbo. Now the task is to build a new political and economic system that is sustainable. President Barack Obama’s speech on the Middle East on May 19 outlines most of the right economic features. When communism ended two decades ago, the Soviet Union fared much more [...]
This post follows up on, updates, and responds to a number of comments we received on, our previous post on the succession to Dominique Strauss-Kahn as Managing Director of the IMF. Why not a meritorious European this time? Some have argued that the key principle to introduce is merit not nationality. And if that results [...]
At least some of Doha’s cheerleaders of yesterday—with the zeal of the newly disenchanted—are becoming today’s executioners. In a new and widely discussed essay in Foreign Affairs, for example, Susan Schwab, the former United States Trade Representative in the last Bush administration, argued that it was time to perform last rites (although she was not [...]
The saga of securities exchanges consolidation is a vivid illustration of links between companies and nations in a state of flux. The likes of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are national icons of capitalism. But they are also technology-enabled networks that connect market participants and seek a global reach to maximize economies of scale, [...]
This note provides a quick guide—in the form of a table—to the likely candidates to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as next Managing Director (MD) of the IMF, assuming that he resigns shortly. It also highlights some key points that must guide the process of selecting the next MD. Need for urgent action. The IMF is at [...]
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s detainment in New York City on Saturday has raised questions about the future of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The short answer to those questions is that the IMF will continue to do its job effectively with or without Mr. Strauss-Kahn as its leader. No individual is or should be [...]
The timing seems almost fitting. Precisely one year after the Greek bailout in early May 2010, an action intended to help Greece but also to keep the euro area intact, international media celebrated the anniversary with headlines once again proclaiming Greece’s departure from the euro area1. Fortunately, however, an unscheduled and not so secret meeting [...]