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.
执掌国际货币基金组织(IMF)的那位技术官僚是哪国国籍，对任何人都不应该有太大的关系。但是，如果金砖国家认为这是一件大事，那它就是一件大事。借用巴西、俄罗斯、印度、manbetx3.0 和南非驻IMF执行董事的话来说，由美国人执掌世界银行(World Bank)、欧洲人执掌IMF的君子协议，早就是一种“过时的不成文习俗”。既然这件事成了一个问题，欧洲“世袭制”要延续下去的难度就大得多——无论已宣布参选IMF总裁的法国财长克里斯蒂娜•拉加德(Christine Lagarde)有多么胜任。