CITY AND SUBURBAN
Something must be done. Let's think of something.
Then we can say that we did it
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
It could be worse. The markets have tumbled, Russia has defaulted, bankers and investors count their losses and won- der where the next ones are coming from, but we have thus far been spared official statements designed to restore confidence by reassuring us that everything is quite all right. These are always the signals to rush for the exits. Instead we have the next worst thing, which is the spectacle of finance ministers, central bank governors and their supporting cast of bag carriers and sherpas hurrying to meet each other and to think of something that they or their spokesmen can subsequently announce. They are tempted at such times to take ini- tiatives. As Sir Humphrey Appleby sug- gested to Jim Hacker, 'Something must be done. This is something. We must there- fore do it.' Gordon Brown, whose immuni- ty to jetlag I can only envy, has flown off to give helpful suggestions to the Japanese. In a fortnight's time he and they and their opposite numbers from across the world will converge on Washington for the annu- al meeting of the International Monetary Fund and hope to find it still in business. It has run out of money to lend and must wonder what has happened to the money that it lent to Russia, and what are its chances of getting any back. It expects to be blamed for being too hard on its debtors, but in Russia it was patently too trusting. It believed that the buttons of Boris Yeltsin's desk were wired up to the machinery and that the machinery worked. Russia's other creditors, who may have thought so too, now blame the IMF for not checking. Its meetings are always awash with reports and communiques, but with any luck this year's will not be reassuring.
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