WASHINGTON - The public can now quiz the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund on such matters as global growth or turmoil in financial markets.
The IMF's Economic Counsellor, Simon Johnson, has launched a blog in conjunction with the fall meetings of the IMFand its sister organisation, the World Bank, in Washington.
Johnson wants people to send in questions and comments on the IMF's World Economic Outlook, a twice-yearly snapshot of world growth estimates. "We're trying to use new technology to reach existing and potentially new audiences. So far, the response looks promising."
In Johnson's first post of the day, he says the global financial turmoil in August was a surprise not only in scale but also how quickly it jumped across various markets.
"These jumps were unexpected and we all should be honest with ourselves about that," he remarked.
Later, Johnson weighed into globalisation and inequality with Gary Becker, the 1992 Nobel laureate from the University of Chicago, before turning to the thorny issue of sovereign wealth funds - the surplus money oil-rich Middle East countries and emerging economies like China invest in riskier assets in search of higher returns.
From comments posted so far, Johnson's statements at a news conference earlier on Wednesday that the US dollar is overvalued and needs to fall further have generated most of the interest - mainly from journalists with follow-up questions.
