United States Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs John Taylor was in the Dominican Republic for 24 hours, where he met with all the key players in the nation?s economic vanguard. On Friday evening Taylor dined with the leading businesspeople and on Saturday he met with the PLD principals (PLD President-elect Leonel Fernandez is abroad), with President Mejia (for one hour) and his economic team, and the top guns at the Central Bank. All these meetings took place at the residence of Hans Hertell, the US ambassador. Hoy?s economic editor Mario Mendez reported that the US official, a renowned economist, reaffirmed that the international economic community wants those responsible for the rash of banking failures to be prosecuted. In his few public statements, Taylor has said that this will be a necessary step in restoring confidence to the entire financial system. Taylor also expressed his faith in the new tax proposals that President Mejia will take to Congress this week. In fact, said Taylor, some of the best tax reforms have been bi-partisan, and he expressed his confidence that the legislation would not be a source of conflict between the incoming President and the PRD majority in the congressional body. In his comments to the press, Taylor also touched on the need for a solution to the electricity crisis, adding that the international community will be very interested to see how the quasi-fiscal deficit is handled. Taylor defined his attitude on the Dominican situation as ?cautiously optimistic,? and expressed belief that the IMF stand by agreement would be re-started in the short term.