. no matter how passionate his defence of ifis was, enzo considered ifis ’ criticisms “ a normal and even a positive fact ” because of the ifis ’ own mandate to pursue public goods with public money. in fact, enzo was himself often on the critic ’ s bench, as when he vividly criticized the world bank for lending to middle income countries without proof that these loans would achieve better and more effective ( additional ) development results than commercial loans. for those familiar with the aid debate, enzo ’ s point was an early call for the certification of “ additionality ” of aid money. to the ifis ’ governance enzo devoted a paper, jointly written with another friend that prematurely left us, riccardo faini. the question raised by the paper ’ s title ( “ who runs the ifis? ” ) was addressed with straightforward intellectual honesty asking the data to reveal whether ifis ’ lending was aligned with the financial and commercial interests of their most influential shareholders. the empirical evidence showed the us influence to be pervasive, while europe appeared to limit its influence to its trading partners and japan to asian countries. despite the unequal distribution of power, coalitions were nevertheless necessary to run both ifis. he and riccardo really foresaw the debate on the reform of the ifis. bis central bankers ’ speeches shouldn ’ t developing countries ’ voting power be better aligned with their economic weight? should the objective of greater weight be pursued by promoting regional initiatives, such as the proposal of an asian monetary fund? could new broader groups such as the g20 provide a better coordination? after the crisis there is a growing need of coordination of economic policies in order to reduce instability and uncertainty. several international fora can coexist and usefully complement each other. the g20, even though it has no universal membership, has been particularly effective on a broad set of policy issues even before they are submitted for discussion to the boards of the international financial institutions. recent experience in europe has also shown how regional institutions like the efsf can usefully collaborate with the imf and can greatly leverage the imf funds. 4. conclusions these few thoughts about the life and work of enzo grilli bear witness of his eclectic approach to discipline of economics, as well as of his intellectual and moral integrity. he once claimed that “ economic growth, which is an essential condition for development, is not a mysterious process (... ) ”. of course, this does not mean

his later years, and for their structure, a series of short questions and longer answers, that is mindful of socratic conversations. the occasional reader was always provided with a key that helped him understand in a plain language the essence of the often complex technical and political issues being debated in international fora. what were the dominant themes of these conversations? perhaps oversimplifying, i would select three subjects which stand out both for their recurrent nature and for their relevance today. a first subject, raised in his commentaries of g7 meetings or other important international gatherings, was the issue of coordination ( or lack thereof ) of economic policy decisions by major global players. here he was often concerned with the inadequate or delayed european response to the global challenges that often left the us as the dominant or the only player. for example, at the time of china ’ s negotiations for admission into the wto he complained for europe ’ s notable silence or absence at the negotiating table. similarly he was concerned with japan ’ s protracted stagnation, which he attributed to the disconnect of politics from economics in that country, with the result of silencing another important player. a second item of enzo ’ s articles was debt management at times of economic crises where he suggested greater market involvement in sovereign debt restructuring through those very collective action clauses ( cacs ) that are now being considered for future euro area sovereign debt issues. similarly, he took strong positions regarding the debt relief proposal for highly indebted emerging countries launched by the then uk chancellor of exchequer gordon brown and approved by the g7 and the ifis. his view was that the accumulation of an unsustainable debt is in most cases the result of a wrong policy stance and that debt relief should therefore not be granted if the country had not taken a firm commitment to reverse that stance. a third recurrent subject of enzo ’ s articles, not surprisingly, was the ifis themselves : their effectiveness and their governance. he defended imf policies during and after the asian crisis, at a time when the imf was under heavy attack due to its crisis management strategies on the fiscal and on the monetary front. he claimed that in a world of free capital flows the imf required a new mandate to be able to effectively pursue crises prevention and management. such a mandate should encompass new information requirements, additional monitoring powers, as well as access to a broader volume of resources. all these issues are still at the top of the imf reform agenda