It also does not bode well for Europe. IMF means International Monetary Fund. The rapidly growing global economy is held together by two bonds, trade and money. The bonds have to be strong but also flexible, like a powerful rubber band that stretches a long way but never breaks. The flexibility comes through free trade and free currencies.
Free trade means tearing down tariff barriers.
That will now happen as the WTO moves into high gear with new members China and Taiwan. But in Prague the finance ministers used government power to bail out giant multinational corporations. That weakened the very pivot on which the global economy moves, namely free competition. The euro has been going down since it was issued on January 1, 1999. But circulation was restricted to governments and big private enterprises with general circulation scheduled for January 1, 2002.