Global leadership should be global

Sir, when in “A chance to exert global leadership” July 5, you argue against the fact that Belgium has more votes in the International Monetary Fund than India “despite the fact that it does not even have its own currency” you really get it wrong. Belgium does indeed have their own currency, the Euro, and the fact that they are willing to share it with others could perhaps even argue in favour of them having more votes.

But what really bugs me is the déjà vu feelings I get reading the article, as I am sure that exactly the same things were said when Rodrigo Rato was appointed and, worse yet, that the day when voting rights finally get reshuffled using a new geo-economical realities, we will discover it really did not mean that much. In order to take the IMF and the World Bank to the next level of multilateralism in a globalized world what is needed is a formula more helpful to break those geographical ties that keeps them so chained to sometimes very parochial issues. Besides, if whom you are going to appoint to the IMF’s Executive Board are just central bankers you will never get any real diversity, no matter what country they come from and which just implies of course the slowly build up of another systemic risk.