Mexican Bank Chief goes for IMF Head
May 24th, 2011The race to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the IMF is on!
Today, Mexican Central Bank head Agustin Carstens formally threw his hat into the ring for the top job at the IMF. Carstens, a Mexico City native and longtime member of President Calderon’s cabinet, was the vote director for Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua in the IMF. Upon earning the nomination, Carstens was immediately backed by emerging economic powers China, India, Brazil and South Africa, nations eager to see Europe’s traditional hold on the seat end, and a recognition of the “third world” as an economic power.
Even with this nomination, it is still an uphill climb for Mr. Carstens, who still has to be elected to the position via the IMF’s voting system, which gives European economic leaders Germany, France, and the UK a 14% vote share, who still believe leadership of the IMF is a European birthright, even as Europe faces its worst debt crisis since the founding of the Eurozone.
With nations like Greece, Spain, and Portugal set to receive bailouts that would make even President Obama cringe, perhaps a leader from a nation that isn’t in fiscal distress would be a breath of fresh-air for an organization that uses money from economically wealthy nations like the United States, and redistributes it to nations that are fiscal basket-cases like Greece and Spain with no guarantee of being repaid, even if such nations experience full recoveries. If you thought the Federal government’s decision to spend billions on bank bailouts was a bad idea, just wait until you see the costs of paying for Europe’s problems.
