WASHINGTON—The European Commission’s economic proposals to be unveiled on Wednesday will include a call for the Eurozone nations to pool their representation at the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) into a single seat. Designed to boost the currency bloc’s clout at a time when emerging markets are seeking greater powers in the world [...]

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WASHINGTON—The Greek bombshell decision to hold a referendum on the last week’s celebrated eurozone bailout package will ensure that the G20 Summit starting on Thursday in Cannes will be hijacked by Europe’s troubles. A source of turbulence in the world economy, Europe’s problems are the world’s problems and should be on the G20 agenda. But [...]

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BRUSSELS—Yes, “Europe will be the focus of the Cannes Summit.” Although anticipated, the blunt statement from European Commission President Barroso and European Council President Van Rompuy seemed both redundant and inspiring. Redundant, because a €1 trillion commitment needs implementation and global coordination that only the G20 can offer. Inspiring, because this crisis serves as the [...]

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AUSTIN, Texas — This Sunday, August 14, marks the 70th anniversary of the Atlantic Charter.  Issued as a 376-word telegram by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill following their historic first meeting aboard the Augusta in Newfoundland’s Placentia Bay, the Atlantic Charter established the blueprint for the transatlantic relationship, multilateral institutions, and international order that emerged [...]

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WASHINGTON — The Easter deadline to have the Doha Round endgame in sight has come and gone with no sign that the nearly decade-long stalemate has been broken. The commitment by the leaders of the G20 nations to complete the Round in 2011 now seems out of reach. World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Pascal [...]

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WASHINGTON — When the G20 finance ministers and heads of the central banks gather this weekend in Paris, attention will center on some of the major pledges made at the G20 Summit in Seoul—most notably the commitments related to a more market-determined exchange rate system and to policies to address current account imbalances, whether excessive [...]

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AUSTIN, Texas — By most objective measures, the Obama administration has experienced a rough few weeks.  The substantial Democratic losses in the midterm elections were followed by an Asia trip of mixed reviews, with its final days dominated by a visible setback on the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement and G-20 discord on global economic [...]

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WASHINGTON — The rapidly unraveling Irish debt crisis is stark evidence that the consequences of the 2008 financial meltdown will take years to play out. It is a reminder that the United States has a major stake in Europe’s handling of this problem. It highlights the dangerous mismatch between the reassurances bond purchasers need to [...]

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WASHINGTON — Barack Obama finally succeeded in uniting the world – just not the way he intended.  At the G-20 summit in Seoul, countries almost universally rejected America’s ideas for correcting current-account imbalances as well as its second round of quantitative easing (QE2). After an electoral shellacking at home, the U.S. president suffered a diplomatic [...]

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WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund and the annual G8 gathering of major industrial nations have become increasingly anachronistic in today’s world. Their legitimacy has been in question because of the lack of influence and representation of the world’s poor at their decision-making tables. But an unprecedented shift in power in the post-World War II [...]

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