One of the long-time fixtures at those all-important
G-group meetings - the G7, G10 and the newer G20 - will be missing
this year.
Edwin "Ted" Truman - no relation to Harry S Truman, America's 33rd
president - retired for a second time in January. Journalists have
known him as one of Washington's most self-effacing officials,
first as the longest-serving director of international finance for
the Federal Reserve and then during a two-year stint as assistant
secretary of the US Treasury for international affairs.
Truman has either participated in or witnessed every major event
in international finance since the 1970s. He recently took a
research post at Washington's influential Institute for
International Economics, where he can afford to be more candid
about his trademark views.
Truman is smart, hard-working and contentious to the point of
being dismissive, and his intellectual firepower could cut an
intimidating swathe emanating from the Fed's headquarters in Foggy
Bottom....
