The IMF is at its weakest just as the world needs it most

The creation of the IMF was signed off at a conference in Bretton Woods in July 1944

In a globalised and dynamic economic system, there is a powerful and controversial organisation that has the economic firepower to bail out entire countries: the International Monetary Fund. The IMF plays an important role in the world but recent events have divided its members and weakened its potential to fulfil its role, threatening its very existence.

The creation of the IMF and the World Bank, two distinct but complementary organisations, was signed off at a conference in Bretton Woods in July 1944. That was near the end of World War II, when an