Kevin Rafferty's May 19 article, "Top vacancy looms in IMF," raises questions about Europe's 65-year rule at the International Monetary Fund. Its 24-person board has a chance to acknowledge the new world economic order and the emerging economies in its appointment of the new IMF managing director. It is hard to think of a single candidate who rivals the credentials of the distinguished former Australian treasurer, Peter Costello.
By the end of his 11-year reign in 2007, he had become Australia's greatest-ever treasurer, delivering 10 surplus budgets in 12 years that heralded high growth, low unemployment, low inflation and low interest rates. He made the Australian economy the envy of the rest of the world's developed countries. Four years after he left office, his political opponents have long given up any pretense of criticizing his economic stewardship.
Costello now sits on the World Bank's new Independent Advisory Board, providing advice on anti-corruption measures, and is a highly successful investment banker. There would be no better indication of the IMF's willingness to renew itself than to appoint Costello as its new managing director.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
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