COMMENT In Pittsburgh, leaders made a fine pledge to make the G20 “the premier forum” for co-ordinating policy for the global economy. If they are sincere, the first order of business is to share power within the Bretton Woods institutions.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had outlived their two original mandates by the 1970s. The first – financing postwar reconstruction – had been successfully completed. The other – managing balanced current accounts and fixed exchange rates – failed with the Bretton Woods system.
