IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iie/pbrief/pb09-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

US Interests and the International Monetary Fund

Author

Listed:
  • C. Randall Henning

    (Peterson Institute for International Economics)

Abstract

The US Congress is now considering legislation to approve President Obama's pledge, made at the G-20 London summit in April, to increase the US commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This pledge is part of a collective effort by the G-20 leaders to triple the resources available to the IMF so that it can better respond to the ongoing global economic crisis. To this end, President Obama has submitted a four-part package to Congress for approval. The package would increase the US quota contribution to the IMF by about $8 billion, raise an emergency line of credit for the Fund by nearly $100 billion, endorse the IMF's plan to endow an investment fund through sales of some of its gold reserves in order to provide for its operational expenses, and approve a special allocation of the IMF's synthetic reserve asset, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). C. Randall Henning analyzes the politics and policy merits of the IMF legislation before Congress through a discussion of the IMF's role in the international monetary system, its relationship to US interests, and the congressional record of past IMF legislation. He argues that the present financial troubles have only increased the need for strong US support of the Fund. The IMF reflects the economic policy interests of the United States more faithfully than perhaps any other international institution and congressional action should reflect this basic convergence of interest. Failure to support the IMF now would not only hamper global and US recovery from the current crisis, but it would also undermine US influence, both within the IMF and in international relations generally.

Suggested Citation

  • C. Randall Henning, 2009. "US Interests and the International Monetary Fund," Policy Briefs PB09-12, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:iie:pbrief:pb09-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.piie.com/publications/policy-briefs/us-interests-and-international-monetary-fund
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edwin M. Truman, 2006. "Reforming the IMF for the 21st Century," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number sr19.
    2. Gowa, Joanne, 1988. "Public goods and political institutions: trade and monetary policy processes in the United States," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(1), pages 15-32, January.
    3. Roubini, Nouriel & Brad Setser, 2004. "Bailouts or Bail-ins? Responding to Financial Crises in Emerging Economies," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 378.
    4. John Williamson, 2009. "Understanding Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)," Policy Briefs PB09-11, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    5. Mr. Mohsin S. Khan & Mr. Sunil Sharma, 2001. "IMF Conditionality and Country Ownership of Programs," IMF Working Papers 2001/142, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Morris Goldstein, 2001. "IMF Structural Conditionality: How Much is Too Much?," Working Paper Series WP01-4, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    7. Edwin M. Truman, 2006. "Strategy for IMF Reform, A," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number pa77.
    8. Mussa, Michael, 1997. "IMF Surveillance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 28-31, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Edwin M. Truman, 2013. "The Congress Should Support IMF Governance Reform to Help Stabilize the World Economy," Policy Briefs PB13-7, Peterson Institute for International Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. C. Randall Henning, 2011. "Coordinating Regional and Multilateral Financial Institutions," Working Paper Series WP11-9, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    2. Maurice Obstfeld, 2009. "Lenders of Last Resort in a Globalized World," IMES Discussion Paper Series 09-E-18, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.
    3. Graham Bird, 2007. "The Imf: A Bird'S Eye View Of Its Role And Operations," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 683-745, September.
    4. Maurice Obstfeld, 2009. "2009 International Conference "Financial System and Monetary Policy Implementation," Keynote Speech, Lenders of Last Resort in a Globalized World," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 27(1), pages 35-52, November.
    5. Herbert Gratz & Harald Grech, 2006. "Reforming the International Monetary Fund – Some Reflections," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 4, pages 98-118.
    6. Edwin M. Truman, 2013. "The Congress Should Support IMF Governance Reform to Help Stabilize the World Economy," Policy Briefs PB13-7, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    7. Ryan Felushko & Eric Santor, 2006. "The International Monetary Fund's Balance-Sheet and Credit Risk," Staff Working Papers 06-21, Bank of Canada.
    8. Zaki, Mokhlis Y., 2001. "IMF-Supported Stabilization Programs and their Critics: Evidence from the Recent Experience of Egypt," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 1867-1883, November.
    9. Mehadi Mamun, 2021. "The Impact of Foreign Aid Conditionality on Poverty Alleviation in Bangladesh: A Recipient’s Perspective," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 11(3), pages 151-161, December.
    10. Robert B Kahn & Ellen E Meade, 2018. "International aspects of central banking: diplomacy and coordination," Chapters, in: Peter Conti-Brown & Rosa M. Lastra (ed.), Research Handbook on Central Banking, chapter 17, pages 333-364, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Richard Connolly, 2012. "The Determinants of the Economic Crisis in Post-Socialist Europe," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(1), pages 35-67.
    12. Christoph Trebesch & Mr. Michael G. Papaioannou & Mr. Udaibir S Das, 2012. "Sovereign Debt Restructurings 1950-2010: Literature Survey, Data, and Stylized Facts," IMF Working Papers 2012/203, International Monetary Fund.
    13. Robert Brown, 2010. "Measuring Delegation," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 141-175, June.
    14. Sieglinde Gstöhl, 2007. "Governance through government networks: The G8 and international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-37, March.
    15. Herrera Dappe,Matias & Musacchio,Aldo & Pan,Carolina & Semikolenova,Yadviga Viktorivna & Turkgulu,Burak & Barboza,Jonathan, 2022. "Smoke and Mirrors : Infrastructure State-Owned Enterprises and Fiscal Risks," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9970, The World Bank.
    16. Ran Bi, 2008. "“Beneficial” Delays in Debt Restructuring Negotiations," IMF Working Papers 2008/038, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Sawicki, Janusz, 2001. "Debt Reduction in the Eurozone," Gospodarka Narodowa-The Polish Journal of Economics, Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie / SGH Warsaw School of Economics, vol. 2011(7-8), August.
    18. Shim, Ilhyock & Sharma, Sunil & Chami, Ralph, 2008. "A Model of the IMF as a Coinsurance Arrangement," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 2, pages 1-41.
    19. Ronald U. Mendoza, 2007. "A Compendium of Policy Instruments to Enhance Financial Stability and Debt Management in Emerging Market Economies," Working Papers 48, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    20. xavier Ragot & Francois Le Grand, 2018. "Sovereign Default and Liquidity: The Case for a World Safe," 2018 Meeting Papers 889, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iie:pbrief:pb09-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peterson Institute webmaster (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iieeeus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.