Tim Fernholz examines how America’s top financial diplomat is working to save the world from our mistakes:
Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs Lael Brainard, the United States’ most important financial diplomat, became concerned that the Europeans weren’t taking the situation seriously. The conventional response was clear: Greece would cut back on spending, while other countries and international institutions would put up hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to keep Greece from defaulting — in other words, a bailout. In the view of Brainard and her boss, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the sooner the Europeans acted, the cheaper and more effective their response would be. But Europe, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, seemed unwilling to offer either a solution or accept help from the International Monetary Fund.
