There is never a great moment to experience an emerging markets crunch. Right now, however, the timing of the debacles in Argentina and Turkey is almost fortunate for Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF.

For as investors nervously watch events in Buenos Aires or Ankara, Ms Lagarde is grappling with another dilemma in Washington, around the IMF itself. This autumn she is launching a discreet lobbying campaign to persuade the fund’s major creditors to expand its resources. And as this battle gets under way, the crisis in Argentina might unexpectedly help her pitch — even (or especially) with the administration of Donald Trump.

Investors need to watch this tussle. To understand why, consider some maths. Before the financial crisis, the fund had less than $300bn available to support troubled countries. However, after the European sovereign debt crises that arsenal rose to $1tn.