Boston Globe – The leaders of Germany, Britain, France, and Italy yesterday said that the resources of the International Monetary Fund should be doubled, to $500 billion, to help head off new problems in countries already hit hard by the global economic and financial crisis.
The officials also said, in a statement clearly aimed at hedge funds and other big private pools of capital, that "all financing markets and participants" need to fall under regulation in the future. And they vowed to make a tough push against tax havens.
With one eye on a crisis that is rapidly spreading to Eastern Europe and even countries that use the euro, the leaders highlighted the crisis-prevention role of the IMF, an institution whose relevance to the current global economy seemed in doubt only a few years ago.
