Introduction

IMF and Group of Ten studies were announced by US Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon at the IMF Annual Meeting in September 1963 (the same time a commitment to pursue a similar study was made by Machlup, Triffin and Fellner, who were attending the same meeting). The Group of Ten study was undertaken in the period 1963–4 by the deputies of the Group of Ten. Machlup had scheduled the publication of the Bellagio Group's final report for June 1964, preceding by two months the official publication of the IMF staff and Group of Ten reports. The Bellagio Group's report, International Monetary Arrangements: The Problem of Choice (1964), was shared with the IMF and deputies of the Group of Ten and attracted significant attention, especially from the chairman of the deputies of the Group of Ten, Otmar Emminger, and the chairman of the OECD's Working Party 3, Emile van Lennep. Their interest in the Bellagio Group coincides with the rising importance of the Group of Ten countries and the assignment of major IMF projects to the deputies of the Group of Ten. Chapter 8 first explores the historical context of the rising importance of the Group of Ten.