European Union leaders have seven days to come up with a plan to solve the European debt crisis before the Euro collapses. If Germany, the only country in Europe with a real economy, decides not to bail out failing countries like Greece and Italy, the International Monetary Fund could be called upon to pick up the tab, and who puts the most money into the IMF? The United States of course.
Euro-area finance ministers said they would seek a greater role for the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank in fighting the sovereign debt crisis after conceding the effort to expand their bailout fund missed its target.
The finance chiefs of the 17 nations using the euro agreed to work on boosting the resources of the IMF so it can “cooperate more closely” with the European Financial Stability Facility, Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters late yesterday in Brussels after leading the meeting.
“It’s clear that we can go further through the IMF and probably action by the European Central Bank,” Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said today as ministers gathered for a second day of talks. “For the IMF, we are working to see how to reinforce its action and possibly contribute to a boost in its resources. As for the central bank, it’s for the central bank to make its decisions.”
And like most bailouts, it probably won't even work. Open black hole, throw in money.
With about $390 billion currently available for lending, the Washington-based IMF may not have enough money to meet demand if the global outlook worsens, managing director Christine Lagarde has said. The IMF is co-funding the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal and is preparing to send a team to Italy for an unprecedented audit of that country’s efforts to cut its debt.
Keep working America, lazy Europeans are depending on you.