The nationality of the technocrat who runs the International Monetary Fund should not matter much to anyone. But if the Brics think it matters, then it matters. The deal by which the US runs the World Bank and a European the IMF has long been an “obsolete unwritten convention,” to borrow the words of the fund’s executive directors from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Now that this is an issue, it will be far harder for the European succession to continue, whatever the merits of France’s Christine Lagarde, who has declared her candidacy.
執掌國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)的那位技術官僚是哪國國籍，對任何人都不應該有太大的關系。但是，如果金磚國家認為這是一件大事，那它就是一件大事。借用巴西、俄羅斯、印度、中國和南非駐IMF執行董事的話來說，由美國人執掌世界銀行(World Bank)、歐洲人執掌IMF的君子協議，早就是一種“過時的不成文習俗”。既然這件事成了一個問題，歐洲“世襲制”要延續下去的難度就大得多——無論已宣布參選IMF總裁的法國財長克里斯蒂娜?拉加德(Christine Lagarde)有多么勝任。