IMF power grab

...extracting the maximum amount of concessions and promises of further "responsibility" while posturing as the only grown up in the room.

Deft.

The downside is if an agreement is not reached, the IMF will have made so many enemies that it can effectively surrender its charter.

The key is ECB guarantees...something that should have been done a year ago.


PARIS — European officials working to address the region’s financial
crisis have rejected key recommendations from the United States and
the International Monetary Fund, casting doubt on whether an emerging
plan will be as broad or fast-acting as hoped.

As crisis negotiations continued this weekend, European officials said
they had reached general agreement on a response they were confident
would restore faith in European banks and government finances.

The detailed plan to be agreed on by European officials next weekend
“will be decisive,” French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said
Saturday as he concluded a two-day session with finance ministers from
the Group of 20 major economic powers.

But the plan excludes the open-ended use of the European Central Bank
as a guarantor of government debt and the swift infusion of public
capital into banks that U.S. and IMF officials say could be critical
to restoring confidence in the euro region. Both were central elements
of the effort to shore up the U.S. financial system three years ago.