Obama seeks to create a post-American world via the IMF

In a move that has met with resistance in Europe, the United States is pushing to reduce the Continent's influence over the International Monetary Fund and grant more of a say to economies outside of Europe that are growing and leading the global recovery.

The move could shape the governance of the fund, which has taken a more prominent and stronger role after the financial crisis....

 

Last month, American officials used a procedural maneuver to block the board from being reconstituted in its current form for another two years./

Our European allies don't like his efforts to weaken their power.

"As things are, the number of directors from European countries exactly reflects the weight of European countries in the I.M.F., and there's no case to be made for European countries being overrepresented," Bertrand Benoit, a spokesman for the German finance ministry, said.

Obama and company do not seem to care what the Europeans think because they worship at the shrine of multilateralism. A spokesman for the Treasury Department has this to say:

"The United States is pressing for this change to advance multilateralism, to make the I.M.F. more representative and strengthen its legitimacy, and to enhance the voice of dynamic emerging market and developing countries."

So now Obama is ruffling more feathers and harming the very relationships we need to face the challenges ahead. Does anyone think that "spreading power" to lesser-developed nations will lead to better governance at the IMF? Instead the risk will be that the IMF will devolve into what other "multilateral" groups have become (think the UN General Assembly): a tool in the hands of the rest of the world to enrich and empower themselves at the Western world's expense - literally.

Will billions of American taxpayer dollars now flow to corrupt lesser-developed nations with very little oversight? One more step Barack Obama is taking to weaken the rest and play a role in creating a post-American world. Let me guess; at one point there will be moves to expand the UN Security Council.