India Finance Minister Chidambaram Tells Inner City Press Obama's IMF Reform Vote Delayed, Will Meet Lew

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 17 -- On his way to the International Monetary Fund - World Bank meetings in Washington, India's Finance Minister P. Chidambaram stopped in New York City on Wednesday, and Inner City Press asked him about IMF reform. Video here.

  Inner City Press asked specifically about quota and governance reform. Chidambaram replied that the “review is incomplete because the US has not voted.”

  The US has a 17% vote, which can block the required 85% majority.

  Chidambaram continued that “they promised to vote after Obama's swearing in, but it's gotten delayed.” He said he believe “it will happen, but later than we would have liked it to happen.”

  In Washington, Chidambaram will meet with new US Treasury Secreary Jack Lew, formerly of Citigroup. Will he raise India tech visa issues? Apparently not -- he noted that the new bill that has been introduced is 1,500 pages long, adding, “we don't have 1,500 page bills back home.”

  He was asked about corruption, and his answer was that of the twenty questions he has gotten in the past two days, only two were about corruption. He said that up in Boston -- just after the Boston Marathon bombings -- he spoke to MIT, an investor.

Some were surprised he continued with the Boston leg of his trip. Ironically, many international journalists based in New York have been sent up to Boston, to sit writing speculative stories they could have written in New York, or in their own basement, like “tax day is hated by right wingers.” Great insight.

At Chidambaram's press availability, in the Waldorff Towers, a coffee service was waved off; a media based on high frequency stock traders asked a question about its own proprietary data. Was this a sales pitch? In more than one way? Watch this site.

At UN, Slow Pace of IMF Reform Noted, Euro Focus Decried, FUNCA Full House

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- At a press conference on the “UN and Global Economic Governance” on Monday, Inner City Press asked Mark Uzan, Executive Director of the Bretton Woods Committee, about the International Monetary Fund quota reforms which have been delayed by the United States.

  Uzan's answer, now on UN Television archives, noted that while emerging countries have gone from debtor to creditor, the IMF's biggest clients now are in Europe. This mustchange things.

  But what the US is proposing is simply accounting differently for the $63 billion it's supposed to pay. These was discussed between the IMF's Christine Lagarde and Obama's Treasury Secretary, former Citigrouper Jack Lew. Some reform.

  At the press conference, sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UN and featuring, in Russian, Murat Karimsakov, Chairman of the the Executive Body of "Eurasian Economic Club of Scientists" Association, the two other questions asked were both by other members of the Free UN Coalition for Access, about common currencies and the European Union. The dying UN Correspondents Association, now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance, was nowhere to be found.

  Inner City Press will be covering this week's IMF - World Bank meetings, and FUNCA will be advocating to both. 

For those physically at the meetings in DC, we recommend: “IMF reform in developing country perspective: legitimacy, policy and roles of the Fund,” (co-sponsors Bretton Woods Project, REBRIP, Third World Network, Public Services International), April 19, 2013 from 4 pm - 5:30 pm at the World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC in Room MC C1-110. Watch this site.

In DC Reshuffle, Citigroup-er Lew Eyed for Treasury, of Barney Frank, FOIA & Rendition

By Matthew Russell Lee

WASHINGTON, January 9 -- Alongside President Barack Obama's nominations of John Kerry, Chuck Hagel and John Brennan, the post of Treasury Secretary is said to be slated for former Citigroup-er Jack Lew.

  Given Citigroup's role in predatory lending and the global financial meltdown, some are asking how could a senior Citigroup official during the critical time from 2006 through 2008 be considered for Treasury Secretary?

  Others counter-argue that Lew worked for Tip O'Neill, the Speaker of the House from Massachusetts, albeit in 1979.

  Meanwhile, former Congressman from Massachusetts Barney Frank has let it be known he'd like to be appointed as temporary fill-in Senator for John Kerry, nominated instead of Susan Rice to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

  One wag suggested, if MoveOn is proposing Paul Krugman to replace (non) tax man Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary, why not Barney Frank? Why not Daniel Tarullo?

  Lower down the financial food chain, the name of Nicholas Retsinas has been floated for FHFA. And in anti-Freedom of Information Act news, now that Lisa Jackson who created fake e-mail accounts to evade FOIA has stepped down, should compliance with Government in the Sunshine laws be a criteria for the Environmental Protection Agency and all other top appointments?

  On Chuck Hagel's nomination as Defense Secretary, now Elliot Abrams has been disavowed by his current employer, the Council on Foreign Relations (whose chief, Robert Haas, makes $800,000 a year, it has emerged).

  It's John Brennan's nomination for CIA Director that may face most opposition, on what are diplomatically called enhanced or "unique" interrogation techniques and rendition. Watch this site.