G-20 Fails to Agree on Use of IMF Resources as Europe Is Pressured to Act

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Bloomberg:

World leaders balked at writing new checks to help bail out the euro-area, demanding its own governments first do more to fix the two-year-old debt crisis.

Global policy makers demanded more details of a week-old rescue package before they commit fresh cash to the International Monetary Fund, which could then lend to Europe’s bailout facility, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the end of a Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a deal may not come before February.

“The worst thing to do would be to try and cook up a number without being clear who was agreeing to what,” British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters yesterday after the two-day gathering ended. “The job of the IMF is to help countries in distress, not to support currency systems.”

The refusal of major economies to stump up money now reflected irritation with Europe’s failure to resolve its crisis and foiled investor hopes that the summit would mark a turning point. The turmoil instead flared again as Greece’s government lurched toward collapse and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi accepted IMF monitoring.

“There really are hardly any countries here that said they will join up” with the European Financial Stability Facility, Merkel told reporters, as she committed Europe to speeding up implementation of an Oct. 27 accord to boost the power of its EFSF rescue fund, recapitalize banks and write down Greece’s debt.
________

It looks like Britain and the U.S. to the "rescue."