Simon Johnson, Chief Economist at the IMF in 2007-08, has emerged as one of the most insightful and amusing commentators on the institution since he left it. AFP reports that on his blog, “The Baseline Scenario,” Johnson argues that Lagarde has taken an aggressive position on the fate of the euro that should be disagreeable for most IMF members.
Johnson says Lagarde “personifies the strategy of gambling for eurozone resurrection with other people’s money. Why would taxpayers in US and elsewhere want to support her on this basis?”
The article concludes with a prediction from Johnson: “As IMF chief, he said, `she will most likely continue to throw loans at the eurozone problems,’ — referring to the possibility of preventive loan facilities for Spain, Italy, or Belgium. That, he said, could require the IMF to tap its shareholders for `at least another $1 trillion’ in credit lines.”
IMF Boss 