Imagine the long faces in Brussels this morning after the American government yesterday announced the economy slowed in the fourth quarter and the Federal Reserve board decided to reduce overnight discount rates by 50 basis points — without coordinating with the European Union in Brussels or the European Central Bank in Frankfurt or anyone anywhere else.

International coordination is an art in which someone feels left out. Consider the events in London two days ago. The leaders of Germany, Britain, France, and Italy, as well as the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, met to discuss the current economic situation and the need for greater international cooperation. Not invited but not to be outdone, the finance minister for Slovenia, Andrej Bajuk, reportedly suggested that any action by any member of the European Union pertaining to the current international financial situation should involve all of its members. (Slovenia currently holds the E.U.’s rotating presidency.) The four largest E.U. members predictably said that they would coordinate.

One might expect that America should encourage and welcome greater international coordination on both monetary and fiscal policy. After all, the Fed’s unilateral interest rate reductions weaken the dollar. International monetary coordination, in theory, could help America’s banking sector without increasing stress on the dollar.

But international coordination would never focus on helping the American economy or financial sector. It would have other more parochial objectives, such as empowering countries with little power, or international bureaucrats with even less.

The Federal Reserve board properly does not consult or coordinate with either Congress or the White House before making policy decisions. Before making American monetary policy, Chairman Ben Bernanke does not want to consult with the prime ministers of major economies, much less with the finance ministers of all 27 E.U. countries, to say nothing of the ministers of the nearly 200 other countries that dot the globe. The chorus of voices for greater international cooperation on monetary and fiscal policy includes the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and Prime Minister Brown. Mr. Brown would like the IMF to play more of a role of international central bank. Even the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal scolded Mr. Bernanke for not coordinating more with the ECB.

Economic reason does not dictate that countries should coordinate on either monetary or fiscal policy. Countries have different economies with varied economic problems. No single combination of monetary policy will cure the economic ills of all countries. Some countries may eventually reduce interest rates in response to the Fed’s decision. This would happen not because of binding agreements between governments, but because market realities show that such behavior benefits them.

Today’s talk of international coordination is not so much about solving the current economic situation as it is about achieving a longer term policy objective: expansion of international institutions at the cost of national sovereignty. Smaller governments see financial weakness in America as an opportunity to trumpet a grander policy — multilateral financial policy in which America would have a muted voice.

Keep in mind that many of the most vocal voices today call for mandatory, not voluntary, international coordination. Voluntary international economic coordination is not impossible, but the necessary circumstances to foster it are rare. The international community bailed out the Mexican government and economy in 1995; the same international players refused to help the Argentine government a few years later.

Greater international economic coordination is not in the hands of economists but in the fists of politicians. Adam Smith preferred the invisible hand to find the efficient outcome rather than the visible handshake of government officials. Thomas More, writing nearly 500 years in “Utopia,” observed about treaties or leagues: “They think leagues are useless things, and believe that if the common ties of humanity do not knit men together, the faith of promises will have no great effect.” The same holds true today.

A former FCC commissioner, Mr. Furchtgott-Roth is president of Furchtgott-Roth Economic Enterprises. He is organizing a seminar series at the Hudson Institute. He can be reached at hfr@furchtgott-roth.com.