The October 2012 annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Tokyo are a time of change and challenge. Organised partly to show the resilience of the Japanese economy after the North East Japan Earthquake of March 2011, the meetings will certainly succeed, at least in part, in their aim.
But the clouds over Tokyo are heavy and difficult to disperse. This issue of the OMFIF Bulletin probes the interconnections – between the morass over Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in Europe, the pre-election attempts to stimulate the US economy and the opportunities available in emerging markets. The stand-off between debtors and creditors in EMU reminds us in some ways of the 1920s, but with the signs inversed. The European Central Bank has unveiled its Outright Monetary Transactions programme. But it is certainly not outright, there are doubts whether it is monetary, and so far we’ve not seen any transactions.