The United States needed to address its persistent current account deficits and excessive consumption; China needed to address its ballooning foreign exchange reserves and excessive dependence on exports.

Among the more striking aspects of the International Monetary Fund is how little its financial structure has changed since its inception in 1944.

The latest round of UN sanctions against Iran are merely a symbolic gesture and will not work because they fail to target the financial arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the engine of Iran's nuclear program.

When foreign policy cognoscenti run down threats on the global horizon, there is a temptation to cite China, Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan, Iran, Venezuela, and perhaps pending trade agreements with partners in Latin America and across the Pacific. Europe was omitted entirely, but its serious economic implications alone should earn the story a front-page spot above the fold.

Calls for international financial cooperation are picking up.

The fall meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund held hopes of constructive, multilateral dialogue to defuse the currency wars, but did not provide decisive results.

Recent Chinese offensives make the hope that China's emergence as a global power will be peaceful and responsible look increasingly naive, and the Obama administration cannot afford to respond to Chinese hostility with a passive approach.

The Obama administration's budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration deserves strong approval from Republicans.