French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde announced her candidacy to lead the International Monetary Fund. Boston University professor William Grimes is chair of BU’s Department of International Relations. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and author of “Currency and Contest in East Asia.” He offers the following comments on Lagarde’s bid:
“Lagarde’s announcement appears to confirm French claims that China has informally given her its support.
“It will be interesting to see what the quid pro quo will be for China — particularly given the claim by a People’s Bank spokesperson that China is more concerned about the dominant voting position of the United States than about continued European leadership.
“In fact, of course, the U.S. has a reasonable quota based on its size and influence (in fact, it is arguably even slightly underrepresented), while Europe as a whole is wildly overrepresented.
“Another irony of the situation is that the U.S. has been pushing for greater Chinese quota shares against European resistance for the better part of a decade.”
Contact William Grimes, 617-353-9420, wgrimes@bu.edu
