Chipping in for Europe

At a speech in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, called on the US to lend financial support to efforts to prop up debt-stricken countries in Europe.

She said the IMF needed "more firepower" in order to continue to be effective, and now that Europe had raised its debt crisis firewall, it was the IMF's turn to do their part as well. That included a larger contribution from the US.

"Americans might ask themselves: why should what happens in the rest of the world concern us? Don't we have our own problems?" Lagarde said at the Associated Press Annual Meeting. "The answer is simple: In today's world, we cannot afford the luxury of staying in our own mental backyards."

The eurozone debt crisis is a constant source of concern for the global economy, and the IMF contributes funds to international bailouts that have gone to debt-beleaguered nations such as Greece and Portugal. Expanding the organizations coffers would help it be able to offer assistance in ongoing and future crises.

"If the European economy falters, the American recovery and American jobs would be in jeopardy," Lagarde said. "So America has a large stake in how Europe fares—and how the world fares."

The issue is a thorny one during an election year in the United States, and any move to boost contributions to the IMF during a period of domestic economic uncertainty could have political ramifications.

mz/av (AP, AFP)