Rooms at the top

Few people are required,in their new jobs,to hit the ground running as fast as Christine Lagarde is,the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Many in Greece are stiff in their opposition to the conditions attached to a euro120 billion bailout set up by the European Union and the IMF. The national parliament may have voted on Wednesday to accept the terms,but Lagarde will have to handle the fallout,which will test both the strength of the euro and the IMFs nerves. She will have to do so while simultaneously assuring IMF watchers in the developing world some countries wherein have been subject to similar requirements,of cutbacks in government spending that there will be no separate rules for European countries,just because the IMF chief is traditionally a European.

It was hoped,following Dominique Strauss-Kahns fall from grace,that that convention,a relic of the post-World War II international order,would be abandoned. There was some chatter that Strauss-Kahns replacement might be from Asia,but no common candidate was found. Unusually,Lagardes candidacy didnt go uncontested,however,with the governor of Mexicos central bank mounting a spirited challenge.

Lagardes aggressive wooing of Asian countries in response was a nod to changing times. That acknowledgement will have to go further,and take tangible shape in Lagardes stewardship of the Fund. Its not just a question of priorities,but of ensuring that emerging economies have a stake in the institutional order of things. One sensible way in which to do so is to consider very carefully whether the tradition that the IMFs number two be a nominee of the US Treasury Department be continued. A nod to the greater internationalisation of the international financial system is overdue.