Appleby in action
SIR HUMPHREY Appleby, who appears to be advising the British delegation, must be proud of his work on the IMF's quotas. The managing director wants them dou- bled, as managing directors do, the French back him because he is French, the Japanese back him because this is their best chance of bagging second place in the IMF, the Dutch are down the middle, the Americans are dragging their feet because as the biggest shareholders they would have to put up the most money. The Lawson (or Appleby) line is that the IMF has all the money it needs, and to give it more would give its borrower countries the undesirable impression that money grows on trees. The result is general disagree- ment and a postponed decision — now supposed to be reached by the end of the year, though nobody knows how. Sir Hum- phrey spotted that, until ministers can agree on how much money to put up for the IMF, they cannot be expected to agree on who should put what up, so the pecking order of shareholders stays the same a little longer, with Britain still in second place. As Lord Melbourne said of the Order of the Garter, there is no damned merit about it. The merits of the case are that the IMF (like any sensible company) should raise new capital before it needs it, rather than after — and that it is quite easy to imagine the rainy days for-which we should now be providing. Still, we must admire the Ap- pleby style.
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