Former John Locke Foundation election panelist John Gizzi of Human Events reports this morning on the reaction from International Monetary Fund nations to the potential for a U.S. government shutdown:
Officially, no one was discussing the internal budget maneuverings of the U.S., which is the largest shareholder in the IMF. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde insisted to HUMAN EVENTS that there was “no discussion” by the G-20 (19 countries and the European Union) finance ministers as to what would happen if the U.S. debt ceiling were not lifted or a government shutdown occurred in America.
However, others officials from the 187 countries who belong to the IMF and World Bank as well as observers of the four-day economic summit were more than willing to talk about their fear of a possible shutdown in the U.S.
“Of course, we’re nervous about a government shutdown in the U.S!” an official of the Bank of Canada who requested anonymity told HUMAN EVENTS. “We’re the largest trading partner with the U.S., so it goes without saying we were nervous watching the recent budget negotiations.”
The banker added that the “brinkmanship” in the process that led to the last-minute agreement between President Obama and the Republican-controlled House on April 8 caused particular concern in the Canadian financial community.
Bukhari Bello, director of legal services for the ministry of finance in Nigeria, was blunter: “You can never shut your government down. If you ever do that, the U.S. will be thought of as a nation that can’t manage its own fiscal houses and honor its financial commitments—just like Greece, Ireland, and Portugal [all three countries were so wracked with debt that they required bailout packages from the IMF and the European Union].”
