IMF [to 11 October 2014]
http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm

The IMF at 70: Making the Right Choices—Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
By Christine Lagarde
Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
The IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings
Washington, D.C. October 10, 2014
Excerpt
… Seventy years after Bretton Woods, the international community stands at another fork in the road. The tried-and-true modes of cooperation seem to be fraying around the edges. The sustainability of the global economic engine itself is increasingly being questioned.

Can it really deliver the jobs, the incomes, the better living standards that people aspire to? There are three key collective choices to be made:

First, how do we achieve the growth and jobs needed to advance prosperity and ensure social harmony? I would call this the choice between acceleration and stagnation.

Second, how do we make this interconnected world a more inclusive, safer place for all of us to thrive? This is the choice between stability and fragility.

Third, how do we strengthen cooperation and multilateralism, instead of isolationism and insularity? This is the choice between solidarity and seclusion….

…This new reality demands a new response—but not a new philosophy. It requires us to update, adapt, and deepen our modes of global cooperation. It requires using the wonders of technology for the betterment of humanity. It requires what I have a called a “new multilateralism”…

…What does this mean in practical terms? For a start, it means a re-commitment to the values of open trade and investment. It means resisting the lure of “beggar-thy-neighbor” economics. It means placing the global good above individual self-interest.

There are three areas where progress is vital:
:: First, in the financial sector: we need cooperation to come to an agreement on the cross-border resolution of megabanks.
:: Second, we know that tax competition especially hurts low-income countries as they strive to mobilize badly-needed revenue. The international community needs to go further in making it more difficult to shift taxes from one country to another simply for profit.
:: Third, on external imbalances: we know that behind every current account deficit lies a current account surplus. Countries on both sides must take responsibility for balance and stability.
Renewed solidarity also calls for global action to turn the tide of climate change. 2015 is shaping up to be a make-or-break year. If we miss this chance, then we are failing the world’s poorest people, the generations to come, and the planet.

So we must not fail. The new multilateralism must prevail. And the IMF has a pivotal role to play….