. >> fred bergsten. the major operational discussions will be augmentation of imf resources to build an additional firewall to help accusation possible effects from europe. two aspects from that. you have taken i think strong position that the u.s. itself will not contribute to that augmentation of imf resources. i happen to think you're exactly right. this is a liquidity issue. the funding ought to be provided by surplus countries. it's quite appropriate not to contribute and you're right on that. the second issue is the creation of the firewall itself, the increased imf facility and how big it out to be. i think it's fair to say you have not been very enthusiastic about that. in some senses you even discourage creation of a very large, very rapidly available set of additional resource. i'm puzzled about that. i would have thought you would go after the surplus creditor countries to put up as much money as possible to support what the europeans are doing in order to avoid the spillover to other economie

. >> fred bergsten from the peterson institute for international economics. tim, i think it's fair to say the major operational question at the imf meetings this weekend will be possible augmentation of imf resources to build an additional firewall to help cushion possible effects from europe. two aspects of that: you have taken, i think, a strong position that the u.s. itself will not contribute to that augmentation of imf resources. i happen to think you're exactly right. this is a liquidity issue, and the funding ought to be provided by surplus and creditor countries. the u.s. is a big debtor country, has their own deficit problems. so it's quite appropriate, i think, not to contribute -- i think you're right on that. but the second issue is the creation of the firewall itself, the increased imf facility, and how big it ought to be. and, there, i've been puzzled, because i think it's fair to say you have not been very enthusiastic about that. in some senses, you've even discouraged creation of a very large, very rapidly available set of additional resource

. >> fred bergsten. tim, i think it's fair to say the major operational question at the imf meetings this weekend will be possible augmentation of imf resources to build a additional firewall to help cushion possible effects from europe. two aspects of the. you have taken i think strong position the u.s. itself will not contribute to that augmentation of imf resources. i happen to think you're exactly right. liquidity issue, the funny out to be provided by surplus uncredited country. the u.s. as a debtor from come it's quite a program of thing not to contribute and you're right on the. but the second issue is the creation of firewall itself, the increased imf facility, and how big it ought to be. and there i have been puzzled because i think it's fair to say you have not been very enthusiastic about that. in some sense of you even discouraged creation of a very large, very rapidly available set of additional resources, and i'm puzzled about that. i would've thought you would go after the surplus creditor