G20 Summit
Obama hails the new world order
Markets soar after President brokers 'historic' G20 deal between world leaders to bring end to recession
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President Obama hailed the meeting as 'a turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery'
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Gordon Brown declared that a $1 trillion package to stimulate economic growth agreed at yesterday's G20 summit in London will ensure that the world pulls out of recession more quickly.
Speaking after the one-day summit of the world's richest nations in the Docklands, the Prime Minister said there were "no quick fixes", adding: "Today's decisions will not immediately solve the crisis. But we have begun the process by which it will be solved."
He said: "This is the day that the world came together to fight back against the global recession, not with words, but with a plan for global recovery and for reform and with a clear timetable for its delivery."
The US President Barack Obama played a key role in brokering the agreement, resolving tensions between China and France on tax havens.
The $1trn will be made available to countries that run into trouble via the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and World Trade Organisation, which will all be beefed up. Half the money will come from IMF loans, with $250bn to finance trade deals and a further $250bn from the IMF's currency reserve.
Mr Brown and President Obama originally wanted the G20 summit to call for higher government spending and tax cuts, but they ran into opposition from European nations, led by Germany and France. However, the summit kept open the option of such action in 2010 if the $5trn fiscal stimulus scheme does not work. The IMF will have a new role in monitoring whether countries are doing enough to help the world economy grow at about 4 per cent a year.
G20 leaders will meet again to review progress, probably in New York in September, to coincide with the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
Last night British ministers said the real significance of yesterday's agreement was not the $1trn package but the enhanced role it gave to world institutions like the IMF, whose budget will triple to $750bn. "A new world financial order has been born, almost by accident, because of this crisis," one cabinet minister said. "These bodies have been revamped; now they need to raise their game."
The IMF will no longer be regarded as a last-resort option for nations facing bankruptcy, but will instead take preventative action. Many nations have been reluctant to turn to the fund because the stigma of doing so sends bad signals to the financial markets.
The special drawing rights (SDRs) made available by the IMF – which can be converted by national governments into currency to provide a swift injection of liquidity into their economies – will be increased by a further $250bn. The funds will be used in the short term to support the precarious economies of eastern and central Europe. Romania and Turkey are the latest nations to seek help from the IMF; others in recent months include Ukraine, Pakistan, Iceland and Latvia. The IMF has expressed acute concern that a crisis in these economies could spread via the banks to western European countries.
China is playing a notably bigger role, pledging $40bn for the improvement in the IMF's resourcing. Most of the rest comes from the US and Europe. China has publicly called for an increased role for the IMF's own "world currency", the SDR. A long-awaited reform of the governance of the IMF should deliver China more votes and influence.
Last night President Obama hailed the meeting as "a turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery". He told the press: "By any measure, the London summit was historic. It was historic because of the size and the scope of the challenge that we face and because of the timeliness and the magnitude of our response."
The President said that "former mortal enemies" had come together to agree a common path out of recession. "I am very proud of what has been done, but this alone is not enough. The actions we take in our individual countries is vital." He added: "It's hard for 20 heads of state to bridge their differences. We've all got our own national policies, our own assumptions, and our own politics. But our citizens are hurting – they need us to come together."
The 20 leaders also agreed to reform the financial system to prevent a repeat of the crisis. Mr Brown trumpeted the "start of the end" for tax havens refusing to be transparent about the money they hold; they will be named and shamed.
Last night, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development issued a "blacklist" of four offending countries: Costa Rica, Malaysia, the Philippines and Uruguay. In the run-up to the summit, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Andorra and Singapore joined a new spirit of openness. Yesterday Brunei and Guatemala agreed to abide by the new rules. The Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and British overseas territories such as the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands already comply with the guidelines.
Under yesterday's deal, tax havens would have to open their books to other countries upon request, or face tough sanctions. Banks across the world face a regime of checks to guard against a repeat of the excessive lending that triggered the global financial meltdown.
The leaders pledged to give their regulators the powers to collect all the relevant information about banks and to strengthen links between regulators from different countries to pool information about multinational financial institutions. Hedge funds will be brought into the regulatory system. Bankers' pay will reflect long-term performance, not short-term risk-taking.
Mr Brown pronounced the free-market consensus was over, hailing a "new consensus" among the largest countries. "From today we will together manage the process of globalisation," he said.
On the fiscal stimulus, the Prime Minister insisted: "The issues that people thought divided us did not divide us at all. There was substantial agreement on the need for us to do whatever is necessary to return to growth."
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, who had threatened to walk out if he was not happy with the outcome, said: "There were moments of tension. Never would we have thought to get as big an agreement." He praised President Obama for helping to create consensus and persuade China to agree to publish lists of tax havens. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, called the measures "a very, very good, almost historic compromise" that will give the world "a clear financial markets architecture". But the anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof said: "A key question the African delegation is asking is whether this will be real new money for their countries, and will it be grants or expensive loans?"
David Cameron, the Tory leader, said: "Now the focus should switch back to our domestic economy because small businessmen needing a loan to keep their businesses going are still suffering. And our public finances here in Britain, the level of our deficit, is truly horrific and we need to act on that."
The deal: Key points
Boosting world economy...
An extra $1 trillion pumped into the global economy via the International Monetary Fund. IMF reserves increased by $500bn to $750bn.
Help for ailing economies...
IMF will boost by $250bn the cash countries can access through "special drawing rights". It is similar to "quantitative easing" – printing money.
Cleaning up banks...
Greater powers for regulators and strong supervision of multinational institutions. Curbs on pay and bonuses. Hedge funds regulated.
Increasing trade....
$250bn trade support package offered to developing countries.
Tax havens...
Must open their books or be "named and shamed" and face sanctions.
Reform of IMF...
IMF and the World Bank beefed up. Fast-growing countries gain influence.
Crisis? What crisis? The other good news
The optimism of the G20 summit's conclusion was shared by the markets yesterday. The FTSE 100 index of leading UK shares closed almost 170 points higher at 4124.97. There were similar gains across Europe and in America. There was also some good news for the British economy as the Nationwide building society revealed that house prices rose in March. The increase of 0.9 per cent was the first rise since October 2007.
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Comments
Oh my god! We all know what happened the last time we heard those words!
You can't have a new world order with the same old politicians corporations and war machine now can you?
He didn't say a new world order that's one without astronomical profits, multimillion dollar bonuses, or the swindling and the gambling they've been doing with our taxpayer money.
So much propaganda it's just sickening people we're doomed, in less week break this cycle of greed and the world gets a much needed a value adjustment.
Several European countries including France and Greece are one step away from larger scale revolt, eastern European nations are becoming more fractured and rebellious, in true British fashion this week the people have bared their teeth in a slow warning to Brown that things are not alright, that things are far from alright and that the people in these countries are not willing to tolerate much more.
All you need is one country to collapse into the rubble and it will spread like wildfire, it is unlikely to happen if people have too much to lose but there is a lot of people out there who have lost everything and cannot lose anymore, some six million foreclosures in the US expected in the next year at least, consider that six million families out on the street, no job or income and meagre food benefits if they are lucky...
I would expect to see the first major riots in America this summer, California itself is in real deep trouble and also has under its aegis the largest tent city in America amid threats to cut welfare completely as the state is bankrupt and cannot afford to pay its workers let alone feed the homeless, New Hampshire is all but declared itself on the point of leaving the Union with several other states preparing similar legislation.
Brown and Obama are tapdancing on the edge of the abyss into hell and telling us they can fix it, hoping to buy some time in the vain and stupid hope that something "will come up" in the mean time...
Pouring money in to the banks that caused this crisis to start with is illegal and immoral.
No to the World Order.
No to Gordon Borwn.
No No No!
Down with Obama the scourge of America!
This obsession with growth when we live on a finite planet with limited resources has reached the absurd stage, particularly when it is becoming abundantly clear that growth is no longer possible because the planet 'has no more to give' without the fundamental fabric of ecosystems being damaged beyond repair.
Obama hails the new world order'.
What a sinister phrase that is.
On every occasion the IMF has been given free rein to loot and ravage nations it ends up in an absolute disaster for the ordinary people of the nations concerned - public assets falling into the laps of global corporations for a pittance and in the worst cases, ordinary people unable to even access their own money from ATMs.
But this time round it is likely to be much worse.
If only ordinary folk knew what 'new world order really means ..... a coded message for an agenda of even greater control than already exists, with more arbitrary arrests, more survillence, more vicious control of the population -especially anyone who dissents, more transfer of wealth from the poor and middle classes to the ultra-rich, more wars to control resoiurces and oil and gas pipelines etc. until the powers that be decide it is time to have everyone microchipped: those who refuse will be put in detention camps or will wander the streets with no access to the basics of life.
The current batch of world leaders are truly evil, since they would rather see the Earth made uninhabitable than give up their insane schemes. Shades of Dr Strangelove.
All your leading mister, is america into the grave.
There will be another 600,000 to 700,000 job loss figures for March in the USA released soon, within a week. Then a similar figure for the month of April.
This will go on month after month.
Your unemployed figures will surpass 20 million before long.
Your finished America, finished.
None of this G20 nonsence will make much difference, not to America.
They are in steep decline, they may not last the year out without support off others.
Maybe that's what this meeting was all about.
One faceless, unatributed British cabinet minister says,
"A new world financial order has been born, almost by accident, because of this crisis,"
and this is the sort of headlines at the top of the page we get.
It's a load of rubbish.
Total load of rubbish.
The US Government has already made over $12T in commitments related to the financial crisis. Granted, over $7T of that is in investments to institutions, purchases of debt, and purchases of mortgage-backed securities. Investments which we're told "could make money for the tax-payer." Time will tell, but I am willing to wager any amount that the tax-payer will take a massive loss on those investments.
Tack on to that $12T the increase in funding to the IMF and the outrageous $3.6T FY10 Federal Budget and the tax-payer is the hole for over $16T. Roughly $52,750 for every man, woman and child in America. Can you say eminent collapse?
Good luck brothers around the world, and know that there are good Americans trying to fix our country, and that means getting rid of this corruption and destruction of our constitution!
Call me a cycnic, if you like, but then again, an intelligent question to pose.
the only people who can stop this madness are the people. time to rise up methinks
What a bleak and barren planet for our children to inherit! if humans survive, it will be a miracle, and not one we deserve.
I wasn't & I don't think anyone else was.
I thank you
Firozali A. Mulla
The revolution started on !st April 2009 - the good people of this planet have had enough - TIME TO ACT for the future of all our children!
Not in my name this world order!
(i) Gordon Brown has totally failed in his attempts to force excessive borrow, spend and accumulate ever more debt on us. Instead other countries have taken control and secured a far more sensible deal that Gordon would have brokered had he been allowed to do so.
(ii) By abandoning the flawed proposals from our prime minister we now have world leaders working together and the first steps to proper regulation (thank you Germany and France) which will be at least a start to restoring confidence in global financial systems.
The bad news: with considerable help from most of the media Gordon has been able to spin this as a personal triumph which may well result in him being re-elected and inflicting further damage on our domestic economy even though he no longer has the influence to inflict damage on the rest of the world. This is very very bad news.
The main decision to come out of the summit was the creation of an array of international regulatory bodies but mysteriously no mention of them is made by the media. Merkel and Sarkozy talked about them in their press conferences while Brown and Obama talked about stimulus. The media reported what the markets wanted to hear: not the pain-in-the-ass rules but the promise of more bailout money.
The only real money pledged was to the IMF and it's going to governments, not delinquent bankers. In the past the IMF has acted as the bankers' repo man, forcing debtor nations to tighten belts and work for pennies to make export cash. It has suddenly and radically changed its stance, becoming much more supportive of distressed countries, whose consumers are after all the market that a sustainable recovery depends on.
The IMF money was followed by a nod to China on IMF voting rights. Chinese media cheered the summit as a victory. The Euros and RUssia loved the way Obama took no for an answer, backing off his stimulus demands.
The "new world order" that Brown hinted at is not, as the usual conspiranoid crowd here hyperventilate about, the Yank-dominated one that Bush the elder hoped to create on the back of Desert Storm, but one where the chapter-11 "superpower" and its snipped-credit-card British valet took back seat to the cash-rich exporting countries of the world like Germany and China. That's what Brown meant when he said "this old world of the old Washington Consensus is over:" The world will simply no longer slave away to finance the profligate consumerism and ruinous wars of the US in exchange for fictitious securities concocted by Wall Street and City con-men and there isn't a damn thing that Obama or Brown can do to change that.
If we go out right, manage to shift immorality for ethics in competitivity and sustainable economical progress as opposed to the mad spiral of yore, this turmoil could eventually prove to have been profitable. We rarely know where we evolve in the right path, at first, only time tells.
Carte blanche for the falsification of the value of toxic assets.
So much for the new global regulatory standard!
They are blatantly announcing a banking cabal takeover of the G20 countries and they are making out like its a good thing.
They have control of the media in most countries, the only way to find out what truly is happening in the world you need to start looking at alternative News sources.
Now they want to officially monitor everyones emails and internet history and we are just letting them get away with it.
These people are a minority but they exert massive power, they finance wars on either side and then leap to their aid creating further debt - they need to be imprisoned for high treason and massive fraud.
Speaking about the agenda to increase not just funding but power for international organizations on the back of the financial crisis, Zoellick stated, "If leaders are serious about creating new global responsibilities or governance, let them start by modernising multilateralism to empower the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank Group to monitor national policies."
In other words, give global institutions the power to regulate national policy as part of the creation of global government.
What Zoellick is outlining is essentially the end of national sovereignty and the reclassification of national governments as mere subordinates to a global authority that is completely unaccountable to the voting public of any country. From infowars.com. What will our governments sign us up to next?
Look, there will always be the Uber Rich minority controlling the rest of us - always have and always will. Unfortunately getting the banks back on their feet (even though this sh*t is all their fault) seems to be the only way to get the world spinning again.
For now, I remain a confident Obama supporter and I do still believe in him. Sad really, for someone of my own admittedly 'anti politik' stance but after Bush, I, like many others, needed hope and I truly hope we've found it.
Every now and then you have got to belive that not everyone in power is corrupt and evil, otherwise, why would we bother getting out of bed each day?
I think Mr Obama struck lucky in that millions of Americans felt the same way when they voted him in. It's time to try something different.
This is Bush and the GOP's mess. History wont remember that though, Obama will have been President during the worst of times and I fear that is how he will be remembered unless drastic action is taken now.
This moves in the right direction for me even though it is far, far from my personal view on how World Economics should be handled.
The Federal Reserve has systematically imploded our economy by artificially creating enough fiat money to buy out the globe.
And if you really think it's a friggin coincidence all the world leaders are using the same phrase 'conspiracy theorists' have been talking about for decades, then who am i to interfere with your incredible appetite for ignorance.
It is a distraction so that we miss the important things that are happening. What people don't understand is that the same agendas, the same results would have come about regardless of the puppet in power.
mr.obama,you should know better please stop this joke.
And NATO knows, depsite major resistance from European voters,
that it needs to deal with Afghanistan and break apart the Taliban.
-- found a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth
If it work great we've put it off for a while...But as far as I'm concerned anyone including the former administration and the one we have now,When they become any part of the helping or instigating of a New World Order, in any way including financially they should be help up on charges treason,because it goes against what we want as Americans and goes against the Constitution...Right now we should find away to get our present administration out of office before he does anymore damage and work on getting us a Pro American administration.
This can't go on people, let's move!!!!
NWO news in portuguese:
http://umanovaordemmundial.blogspot.c
http://bigbrother-uk-1984.blogspot.com/
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