Washington blog: Day One at the IMF

Technology strides on. When first I came out here, back in the dark ages of 2002, I was solemnly entrusted with Financial Mail's one and only mobile phone capable of operating in the United States.

To get it to work, one had to change the frequency on arrival at Dulles Airport.

Now my British machine hooks up on American networks without a hitch and it is even claimed that the 0044 code is unnecessary when calling home, although I have yet to find this theory works particularly well under battle conditions.

Digital cameras snap arrivals as they leave their flights, clever machines take fingerprints and other clever devices sample one's signature. It is rather like one of those March of Progress newsreels vaguely reminiscent of Citizen Kane and full of the wonders of modern science.

Yet the triumph of technology is a little patchy, to say the least. For example, plugs in the United States are so flimsy as to be apparently constructed from silver paper. Not that this matters much because house current is so low it is hard to get the above-mentioned British mobile phones to charge.

Then there is the shower in my hotel room, a device of such feebleness as to produce a weedier jet of water than even the dodgy changing-room showers I remember from school in the Seventies.

Taxis manage to be simultaneously huge and yet cramped, possibly because of the drivers' habit of filling at least the passenger seat with personal possessions, taxi meter, bottle of water and so forth.

In all, then, the marvels of progress are spread around somewhat unevenly. Not to worry, however. The British press corps is in town for meetings of the Group of Seven rich countries, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Gordon Brown is flying in for what is expected to be his last appearance.

Here is a chap who can get things done. After chairing the IMF ministers' committee for all these years, fixing showers and plugs should be a doddle.

- Dan Atkinson in Washington, Economics Editor, Financial Mail on Sunday

IMF news...

• IMF warns over £58bn UK black hole (12 April 2007)
• IMF see big private-equity hangover (11 April 2007)
• Property could slump, warns IMF (6 March 2007)
• Google News: 'IMF'

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