The WEMF - Worldwide Emerging Markets Fund

2008 is making history of all sorts, the most radical one being that America, where racism is still in living memory, has chosen Afro-American Barack Obama to lead her for the next 4 years. 2008 is probably when the US will start standing to the left of even former USSR. And 2008 is probably when, US should officially shed its status as the leading economic superpower and dollar stops from being the lone international currency.

Maybe 2008 is when we hold another Bretton Woods conference, only that it wouldn't happen at Bretton Woods, but this time it will be within the borders of East Asia excluding Japan. Maybe 2008 is where we will get to replace the Washington consensus with a New Delhi consensus. And for all the cynical folks, we are not talking about a typical socialistic or communist package out there.

The reality is that the American dream, has ended; Informally founded at Regan era, continuing its spree under Clinton, going to peak during the Bush years , the dream has run its course and has shaken people awake as Obama prepares to enter office. It is as if all of us have slept for last 20 years and we are getting back to where we originally were. During this sleep, many have become wealthier, spent quite a lot and finally are back to being poor.

And hence maybe we need to reinvent the international institutions at stake here, primarily the International Monetary Fund. It is about time that we hold a Chindia conference somewhere between Beijing and New Delhi, declare that the IMF in its current shape and form is highly irrelevant and propose formation of a WEMF - the worldwide emerging markets fund.

• This fund is where real emerging markets will have more voting shares than the so-called leading economic superpowers.
  
• This fund will respect democracies of nations to which it lends/advises.
  
• This fund will not force liberalization down the throats of countries that simply dont lack the capacity to withstand such a open economy.
  
• This fund will not stress creditor interest alone.
• This fund will have a genuine interest to pull people out of poverty and not act on the interests of giant free market capitalist countries.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs rightly says "Low taxes and deregulation produced a consumer binge that felt good while it lasted, but also produced vast income inequality, large underclass, heavy foreign borrowing, neglect of environment and infrastructure and now a huge financial mess. The time has come for a new economic strategy- in essence a New Deal".

And so let us work towards this New Deal.