The G-20’s Helpful Silence on Capital Controls
When French President Nicolas Sarkozy took the reins as host of this year’s G-20 summit, to be held in Cannes on November 3-4, he called on the IMF to develop an enforceable “code of conduct” for the use of capital controls in the world economy. But, while the IMF’s proposed code is a step in the right direction, it is misguided.
NEW YORK – When French President Nicolas Sarkozy took the reins as host of this year’s G-20 summit, to be held in Cannes on November 3-4, he called on the International Monetary Fund to develop an enforceable “code of conduct” for the use of capital controls (or capital-account regulations, as we prefer to call them) in the world economy. The IMF followed through by publishing a preliminary set of guidelines this past April.