The Need for Cooperative Economic Policy

At TPMCafe Bookclub:

...This is not an imagined problem, we've seen the difficulties in coordinating monetary and fiscal policy across countries in response to the present crisis, we've seen moves toward protectionism, and I hope we can find a way to improve and do collectively what Kindleberger would have had the global leader do. That will require, for one, that the US realize that it must be part of a team rather than the person in charge giving all the orders, and giving the rest of the world the respect it deserves in formulating these decisions. There have been some encouraging signs, notably the decision at the recent G20 meetings to enhance the resources available to the IMF, the meetings themselves seemed to move toward a more cooperative governing structure, something that certainly wasn't hurt by having a new US administration, and some common views on global financial regulation emerged. But at the same time there was little cooperation on fiscal policy measures, and many of the initiatives were more show than substance. So we shall see.