WikiLeaks - NSA Helped CIA Outmanoeuvre Europe on Torture

WikiLeaks - NSA Helped CIA Outmanoeuvre Europe on Torture

US Intercepts Merkel Upset about Toxic Bank Assets and the U.S. Federal Reserve, wants China in the IMF

 Financial Crisis: Germany's Merkel Addresses Toxic Assets, U.S. Approach, Larger IMF (TS//SI-G//OC/NF)



(TS//S-G//OC/NF) German Chancellor Angela Merkel, expounding in late
February on the international financial crisis, zeroed in on impaired
assets on bank balance sheets as a key concern, while also questioning
the approach being taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Affirming first
her support for the adoption by the Group of 20 (G-20)--preferably at
the 2 April G-20 summit in London--of a binding framework of principles
to govern toxic-asset management, Merkel expressed skepticism about
totally relieving banks of their responsibility for them; the critical
questions, in her view, are the pricing of those assets and how the
owning banks and the governments involved are to share responsibility
for them. In that regard, she was determined that Germany, at least,
would not have an "anonymous garbage bin" where such assets could be
dumped. All nations, the Chancellor continued, are trying to address
this problem, with the Federal Reserve, in her view, being one
institution that is "taking risks." She also was uncertain about the
U.S. Treasury Secretary's plan, questioning whether it constituted
"insurance solutions." Among her other recommendations were a quick
reform and enlargement of the IMF, with countries such as China being
given more influence and responsibility. On other topics, Merkel
advocated a brief consideration of climate change at the London
conference and confirmed her support for regular heads-of-state meetings
on Afghanistan, provided that NATO's 60th anniversary summit is not one
of those meetings.






Unconventional



German leadership



Z-G/OO/500918-09, 031802Z