Broadly applicable quote of note:

"Their attitudes toward the needed policy changes seem much like St. Augustine's -- 'Lord, give me chastity . . . but not just yet.' "

Finding Consensus On Global Economy
Finance Chiefs Agree on Need for Change

By Paul Blustein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005; Page A08

A serious danger looms over the otherwise robust global economy, and the tough measures needed to reduce it are clear. On that score, there was almost unanimous agreement among the dark-suited policymakers from around the globe who converged on Washington this weekend for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

One after another, in public declarations and private conversations, officials from the world's leading finance ministries and central banks concurred that financial turmoil triggered by a plunge in the U.S. dollar could erupt sometime in the future unless strong steps are taken to shrink "global imbalances" -- the massive U.S. trade deficit, and the corresponding trade surpluses of other countries, especially Asian ones. The result "could be disruptive and very damaging to the world economy," warned Sultan Bin Nasser Al-Suwaidi, governor of the United Arab Emirates Central Bank.

So what are these powerful people doing to prevent this dire threat from materializing? Not much, many of them admitted. As Raghuram Rajan, the IMF's economic counsellor, put it: "Their attitudes toward the needed policy changes seem much like St. Augustine's -- 'Lord, give me chastity . . . but not just yet.' "