Financial Leaders Gather for IMF and World Bank Meetings in Washington

This week, finance ministers, central bankers, scholars and industry leaders are arriving for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

But instead of being welcomed into the straightened-up home of the world’s superpower, guests are finding a capital in disarray: the federal government is partly shut down, and a debt default seems imminent.

Assuming the IMF and World Bank guests can look past the local mess, what will they be seeing out on the horizon for the global economy?