In its relations with its most powerful clients, the International Monetary Fund possesses “the right to be consulted, the right to encourage and the right to warn”. Walter Bagehot, the great Victorian economic journalist, gave this description of the role of the British monarch in the 19th century. I applied this phrase to the role of the fund in a paper I submitted to its 2011 triennial surveillance review. At the annual meetings in Tokyo, the fund fulfilled precisely this role. What matters, however, is that its members, above all, the US and Germany, act upon the warnings and encouragement they have received.
在與其一些最強大的客戶打交道的過程中，國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)擁有“商量權、鼓勵權和警告權”——維多利亞女王時期偉大的經濟記者沃爾特?白芝浩(Walter Bagehot)曾用這三個詞描述19世紀英國君主的作用。在為國際貨幣基金組織2011年度的三年工作評審提交的論文中，我也用這幾個詞來描述該組織的作用。IMF確實在東京年會上行使了這幾種權利。但真正重要的是，其成員國，尤其是美國和德國，能夠依據收到的警告和鼓勵訊息采取行動。