G20: Deal? Or no deal?
Brown and Obama demand new bailouts – then claim to be on brink of global accord for 'recovery and reform' as Sarkozy and Merkel say no stimulus – then insist on tough rules to give 'capitalism a conscience'
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Independent Minds
British officials claimed that Nicolas Sarkozy (bottom left) and Angela Merkel (bottom right) are playing to their domestic audience
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Gordon Brown's hopes of forging a united response to the global recession at today's G20 summit were thrown into jeopardy when France and Germany demanded much tougher rules for the financial system to prevent a repeat of the crisis.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, also rebuffed a plea by Barack Obama for them to stimulate their economies further to help kick-start a worldwide recovery.
The surprise Franco-German offensive, launched at a joint press conference in London last night, left Mr Brown, as the summit chairman, battling to broker a deal ahead of the critical meeting at the ExCeL Centre in London's Docklands. Over a working dinner of the G20 leaders at Downing Street last night, the Prime Minister was trying to persuade emerging economies, particularly China, to swallow some of France and Germany's demands on financial regulation.
British officials claimed that M. Sarkozy and Ms Merkel are playing to their domestic audience. They dismissed the French President's threat to walk away from the summit, saying he would not want to be blamed for wrecking it and predicting that he would claim victory today.
However, Mr Brown is more worried about Germany's opposition to an immediate further fiscal stimulus. Berlin may also object to a proposal for the International Monetary Fund to "name and shame" countries which should do more to boost global growth.
On a day of frantic negotiations, Mr Brown met five G20 leaders for one-to-one sessions and spoke to others, including M. Sarkozy, on the telephone. The leaders saw at least five different draft communiques during the course of yesterday.
Although the Prime Minister said the leaders could be hours away from agreeing a "global plan for economic recovery and reform", the intervention by France and Germany threw a last-minute spanner into the works.
Setting out their demands for a deal, the leaders declared that the summit must focus on cracking down on tax havens, reforming the financial system and tackling the bonus culture among bankers, rather than the need for more government spending or tax cuts. They warned against a "vague" communique today, saying that moves to tackle the root causes of the crisis could not be put off until another summit.
It was a deliberate riposte to a joint press conference earlier yesterday by President Obama and Mr Brown, who agreed that countries should boost their spending to ensure the recession ends as soon as possible. In a broadside against the "Anglo-Saxon" economic model and "light touch" regulation blamed for the crisis, M Sarkozy said: "This is a historic opportunity afforded us to give capitalism a conscience, because capitalism has lost its conscience. We have to seize this opportunity.
"These are our red lines. We are totally prepared to discuss other things so long as these issues are clearly dealt with and solved."
On tax havens, he said a blacklist of countries that refused to be bound by international standards should be published either today or within days. The French President said: "Germany and France will speak with one and the same voice. We are aiming for the same objective in terms of principles and in terms of how to apply those principles. This is nothing to do with ego or temper tantrums, this has to do with whether we are up to the challenges ahead or not. Of course we have to make compromises ... but compromise has to be engaged in by all regions of the world, especially as the crisis didn't actually spontaneously erupt in Europe, did it?"
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said he expected a confrontation at the summit between "two worlds: one that wants more regulation, and the other that wants less and which is closer to so-called 'liberal' positions".
Ms Merkel warned that today's summit would be a failure if it only produced a vague statement of intent. "We want results that yield concrete results and change the world as we know it," she said. "The day after tomorrow will be too late. The decisions need to be taken today and tomorrow."
President Obama, who praised Mr Brown's "extraordinary energy and leadership" at their joint press conference, endorsed his call for other countries to stimulate their economies further. Although he played down the transatlantic split, the President said other nations could not rely on America's "voracious consumer market" to drive the global recovery. "It cannot just be the United States that's the engine room – everybody is going to have to pick up the pace," adding: "Don't short change the future because of fear in the present."
Mr Obama, on his first visit outside North America since being elected President, said he had come to "listen, not to lecture" but added: "We must not miss an opportunity to lead." Mr Brown said today's summit should not produce merely a "lowest common denominator" solution. "We must stand united in our determination to do whatever is necessary," he said.
He added: "We have some tough negotiations ahead. They will not be easy." His official spokesman said later: "We are making good progress but we are not there yet."
David Cameron met Mr Obama for 30 minutes at the President's request. The Tory leader said that there had been a "wide range of agreement" between them. He denied he was at odds with the President over a fiscal stimulus, saying that it was a good thing if countries could afford it, but Britain could not.
Mr Cameron clashed with Mr Brown in the Commons, where he said the Bank of England Governor Mervyn King had "snipped up his credit card" by cautioning against a further fiscal stimulus. "Once the talks are over, Britain will still be left with the most appaling public debt," he told Mr Brown, adding: "We should never leave Britain this exposed again."
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Comments
Who is responsible for this mess?
How bad is the damage?
How will it be corrected?
How will it be prevented in future?
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The French and Germans are absolutely right, as regards the need for regulation, the control of tax havens, and the undesirability of further fiscal stimulus - up to a point. And it should not be forgotten that underlying their joint stance is a naked bid to seize the moment and shift the centre of financial gravity away from the London and New York financial centres to those of Frankfurt and Paris. There is nothing that Merkel and Sarkozy would love more than to tie down the City of London in a mass of regulation of the type that would give any Brussels bureaucrat a gleeful orgasm.
However, it's all the fault of the British and Americans for the ludicrous deregulation which started with the Big Bang in the mid-80s, and was vastly exacerbated by Clinton's banking deregulation in 1999. In effect, the whole careful regulatory system and philosophy put in place during the 1930s (and led by President Roosevelt, a man of infinitely greater intellect, incisiveness, vision, statesmanship, ability to inspire and sheer political nous than any on offer today) was smashed to smithereens. The era of wild, crazily optimistic, unbridled cowboy capitalism was then allowed to run riot. We have only ourselves to blame, and at the forefront of Obama and Brown's minds should be the requirement to regulate properly again, without stifling legitimate finacial enterprise to the extent that Germany, France, and of course Brussels want.
"In some ways, the world has become accustomed to the United States being a voracious consumer market and the engine that drives a lot of economic growth worldwide," Obama said, hinting that this position may not be sustainable. "We're going to have to take into account a whole host of factors that can increase our savings rate and start dealing with our long-term fiscal position as well as our current account deficits."
Now comes the issue of revealing the truth as it ought to be.
Doggedly optimistic in the face of doubts, President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown predicted Thursday's emergency G-20 economic summit would produce a significant global deal to tackle the deepening worldwide recession. Sarkozy and the German is clear and we see this in the net and TV. The words are harsher then ever before. Sounds like we have the 1930 coming back and staying with us. Read on.
Others weren't so sure.
France warned on Wednesday that neither it nor Germany would agree to "false compromises" that soft-pedal a need for tougher financial regulation to curb abuses that contributed to the spreading chaos. And outside the carefully scripted meetings, protesters smashed bank windows and pelted police with eggs and fruit.
Now we talk of any deals. The British Police and the public take the hammering in their own home grounds and USA states that USA is the biggest partner in trade. Does USA pay for the blood of the deaths on the London streets? I wonder. The above reads as the visit of Obama as the trade only talk and no more.
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/05/busin
Hard to see any recovery being possible whilst the toxic assets, the products based on toxic assets, the shares and derivatives based on those products, are swimming around the global finance markets. And people who joined in the party which caused it being in charge of the cleanup.
But I know a lying thief when I see one, and I'm seeing plenty on the news just now.
We need more direct action , justice must smite hard on the crooks in control. More protest More riots.
DO WE WANT TO KEEP OUR OPTIONS OPEN FOR ANOTHER WAR SOME TIME. YES THATS IT, STICK TO THE STATES AND A BETTER CHANCE OF A WAR.?
I support Sarkozy and Merkel.
He could hardly contain himself - I thought he may actually orgasm he was so excited.
It was indeed a great day - he actually had a press conference in a room and not a corridor.
But what was clear for all to see is that the fool has screwed up so much that he now has his tongue buried in Obama's arse - and at some point he will be covered in shit.
Maggie and Blair had relations with the US that had some substance - Mc Ugly looked like a little school boy meeting a football player.
Not his Mc Fucking Useless just useless he now is a world embarrassment as well - pathetic
Smooth talking charm just doesn't cut the mustard anymore !
Capitalism needs changing and we need urgent fiscal surgery.
Rock on Sarkozy and Merkel !
I think I can safely say that most of the people of Europe who have any idea of what is going on are right behind them.
The disgraceful and disgusting waste of tax payers money whilst hospitals are left short is indeed a sin against mankind. Whilst many households go hungry these delegates and their hangers on will slurp on fancy food and wine at an enormous cost, but not even one penny paid out of their own pockets.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/20
Let alone the Anglo Saxon world, what about China where a turn around in the culture of corruption and state executions would help it to implode its modern day mythical status. We all need wisdom to avoid a future beasting by the powers within.
Looks like greedy white men philosophy of how to run the planet isnt just gonna roll over and make way for a new start. I have been wondering recently what gives them more pleasure 1- having so much money its beyond reckoning 0r 2- watching the misery they create.
If "history repeats itself" shouldn't every man, woman and child be made aware of exactly which piece of history we are on the verge of repeating. The Germans and French are trying to warn us, yet they are portrayed as spanners!
Brown is out of his depth playing butler to the rich and famous..a real Brown nose job. Brown has left the UK with record debt, a busted economy, and a flattened currency...some legacy. All the fault of a complete lack of regulation on his part thanks to his tinkering the the Bank of England's responsibilities.
Thank goodness for Sarkozy and Merkel for insisting on tighter regulation.
The closing pragraph pontificates. 2Right Honourable Prime Minister, i invoke Almighty God's abundant blesings upon the London Summit and upon all the multilateral metings currently searching for ways to resolve the financial crisis and I take this opportunity once agin to offer you warm greetings and to express my sentiments of esteem." Copyright 2009 --Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Pray tell me: does any Head of State or Government participating at G20 copyrights his or her official correspondence?
The bottomline indicates that the only polititian claiming infallability as God Almighty's alter ego on this planet disagrees with the only agreement public opinion so far compells upon G20. April Fool's Day served business as usual. Time is of the essence. Material economic differences must be resolved right now.
Luckily the popular US President is better advised than his predecessor and pragmatic. the odd couple Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy bet that no Subprime Minister may serve Obama as poodle. Amen
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1421121/w
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/ron
http://video.google.com/videoplay?d
http://www.prisonplanet.com/hannity-mor
http://www.prisonplanet.com/world-b
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pwAFohW
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICL
http://www.petitionproject.org/review_a
http://www.voltairenet.org/article15915
Can you imagine what goes through the head of the public who depend on the little income from the salaries? What is more the G20 only so far has reached one agreement that please or may please the public? China invites Obama. That is probably the best news for the power packed seminar. Where does Brown stand in the invitation I wonder.
"After me the deluge" cost the ingenue queen Marie Antoinette her head though she never publicly quoted the late king's mistress. Outspending frivolous French royalty caused a revolution that changed the world. Maynard Keynes repackaged perennial attempts to borrow from future generations with the less offensive slogan: "On the long run we are deed." Indeed, nobody lives forever. However medical care increased life expectancy considerably. Demographic trends disturb Angela Merkel's and Nicolas Sarkosy's constituents worse than Barack Obama's. UK remaind on hold until elections provide a stable government. In retrospect the discredited Republican Richard Nixon reshuffled the balance of economic power. May Chairman Mao's meek heirs call the game? Did any of the rioters in the City read his little
red book?
The very day Obama warned G20 leaders against giving in to "fear" Shaun Werbelow wrote in The Cornell Daily Sun "you'd think the devil was invited to speak at the University of Notre Dame's graduation ceremony." Letters to The Observer's editor define battle lines. 70% of alumni letters oppose, but 73% of student letters support President Obama's speech. 97% of seniors writig letters welcome him. Mr. President, the next generation believes in you, don't give in to chuzbe either. If you must call Pontifical bluff as polite as possible.
Ms. Merkel. a Lutheran, dared to critiisze her compatriot Benedict XVI., aka Josef Ratzinger, for condoning a British holocaust denier. Only one Catholic bishop publicly suggested that she apologizes. Chsncellor Merkel quickly replied she wouldn't and added there was no need, as the Pope personally called her surprisingly to talk things over.
Unless the "me" generation swiftly learns that the Global village's ecology depend on a "we"society our future looks bleak the sermon of the mountain's blessings notwiithstanding.
Like the reporters, we need the change with the times. The way I read this, I am pleased with the outcome. I want to see the public pleased. This does not mean that the London riots will be forgotten. No. The scar stays on.
G20 summit: markets surge with confidence after $1.1 trillion global boost
The London summit pledged a $1.1 trillion boost to the international economy last night, hailing a confidence-building deal that would lift the world out of recession next year.
The London G20 summit may not have yielded the second big co-ordinated fiscal stimulus that Mr Brown and Barack Obama had hoped for when it was called in November last year.
All leaders, particularly Mr Brown, Mr Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, heralded a successful outcome. The boost was completed by a $6 billion sale of IMF gold reserves to help the poorest countries. IMF managing director, hailed what he called ?the most co-ordinated stimulus ever?.
That leaves the IMF as pump-primer of last resort, although not all of the funding promises made on Thursday were new. Japan and the European Union it was better that they met than not. Financial markets rallied after the G20 news.
This is the good news ever I read after August 2008. I want to state one thing. The summit may have hurt many, it did, but what we are looking at the public finance. Now we have to see if the IMF boost is passed on to the rest of the world.
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla