EU backing off on financial regulatory toughness?

In advance of a Nov. 15 meeting of the world’s leading economic nations, the European Union is backing off the idea of trying to make the International Monetary Fund a true global bank.

Of course, a President-elect Obama may have different thoughts on that than a President Bush, on this side of the pond.

And, do we not already have a global bank called the World Bank?

I’m not sure how much of the partial stand-down on muscle flexing is a squabble between the continent and Britain, as PM Gordon Brown has been the biggest pusher for a more muscular IMF, and how much is due to other factors.

Maybe the continent is afraid of the responsibility, or the pressure on the Euro, that an IMF rivaling the World Bank would cause.