It's Not Spring Until the Spring Meetings
Bankers, investors and economists from around the world gather in Washington this week to assess the state of the world and the prospects for global growth
For some, winter ends definitively with the vernal equinox; for others it’s the return of baseball or the splash of daffodils out back. If you work in international finance, however, the seasons don’t officially change until the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C.
Like the swallows of Capistrano, bankers, investors and economic policy officials gather this week for what is both a splashy corporate boondoggle and a comforting re-affirmation of the “rules-based” global order.
If you sensed an extra spring in the step of your favorite financier recently, it may be because he or she was booked to join this international flock for a week of seminars, panels and speeches that culminate in gatherings of the finance ministers and central bankers who formally manage these two institutions. Session titles include “Poseidon’s Wrath: Future Losses from Floods and Tropical Cyclones” and “Diagnosing the Slowdown in Global Growth: What Will Turn the Tide?”
The real fun for the gathered financiers, however, comes from the countless coffees, drinks and dinners they have booked (and double-booked) to network with former colleagues, current collaborators and future job prospects. You can almost see the thought bubbles overhead as they dash from hotel lobby to auditorium to meeting room. “Is that the former Slovak finance minister down the hall or the IMF mission chief to Tunisia?” “Can I duck behind this pillar fast enough to avoid the woman who fired me from my first job?” “Wow, I didn’t realize Janet Yellen was that short!”
There is always some news that makes it back home from the IMF’s revisions to global growth prospects in the updated World Economic Report, which this time included the weakest long-term outlook in decades. There will also likely be headlines around how Russian assets might be seized to rebuild Ukraine and whether the oil price accurately reflects Israel’s retaliation against Iranian drone attacks.
It doesn’t have the prestige of Davos or the glamor of Milken or the gravitas of the U.N. General Assembly, but nor is it quite, in the words of one wag, “Burning Man for Beancounters.” Amid a small proportion of nonsense and a huge amount of talk, there is something valuable going on here.
Nations demonstrate their values by how they invest and spend their money. These meetings are where top officials from rich and poor countries alike gather to discuss how they can grow their economies faster, build infrastructure better and share wealth more equitably. They exchange ideas on how to finance the climate transition, how to adjust to shifting supply chains and how to alleviate untenable debt burdens.
For all there is to ridicule in the sea of bureaucrats who manage to look overdressed even without a necktie, it remains very much at the heart of the current international order that many are too quick to dismiss these days. These Bretton Woods organizations grew out of World War II and the hope remains that they can help also avert World War III.
If it’s sometimes hard to see what gets accomplished at these spring meetings (or their counterparts in the fall), rest assured we would all certainly notice the growing financial instability, the rising poverty and the flagging growth if no one came at all.