"G20 Accomplishments Beyond Expectation"

[G_j]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/g20-accomplishments-beyon_b_182417.html

G20 Accomplishments Beyond Expectation
Jeffrey Sachs
Director of the Earth Institute, Economics Professor, Columbia University
Posted April 2, 2009 | 03:50 PM (EST)


LONDON--The G20 came through. What I witnessed as a member of Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's delegation was deeply heartening. The leaders were serious, consequent, and - yes - even efficient in their work. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown ably chaired the conference, President Barack Obama brought America back to global diplomatic leadership, and a number of leaders filled the room with intelligence, commitment, and determination to cooperate. Standouts included Jose Luis Zapatero of Spain, Kevin Rudd of Australia, Felipe Calderon of Mexico, Hu Jintao of China, and Lula da Silva of Brazil.

The results were beyond what most, including myself, expected. IMF resources were raised significantly, to provide a liquidity cushion for global trade and production. The World Bank and regional development banks (such as the African Development Bank) were encouraged to boost lending, backed by commitments of the G20 to raise the capital base of these multilateral banks. Taken together, the combination of new credit lines of all sorts - in effect, new liquidity - is on the order of $1.1 trillion. While this is much less than direct spending in its effect on aggregate demand, the contribution to increased global liquidity will certainly be helpful for many economies, especially emerging-market economies suffering from an intense credit squeeze since the Lehman bankruptcy last fall.

Serious progress was also made on a framework of tighter global financial regulations, including controls on executive compensation, crackdowns on tax havens, controls over hedge funds, and much-needed regulation of the "shadow banking" system (broadly meaning investment funds that depend on very short-term borrowing in forms that compete with bank deposits). There were also commitments to new forms of global cooperation in financial regulation, including procedures for removing toxic assets from bank balance sheets. The G20 also agreed to do better in the fight against creeping protectionism.

The poorest countries, by and large, were not in the room. As usual, their plight came far behind the immediate concerns of the high-income and middle-income countries. Still, through the assiduous efforts of Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and several other leaders, there was a clear re-commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, a strong reiteration of commitments on development assistance (implying an increase in development assistance from around $120 billion in 2008 to at least $160 billion by 2010), and an intention to launch new global efforts on stronger social safety nets for the poor (led by the World Bank). There was also and innovative support for smallholder farmers to raise the food production and food security of the poor, championed strongly by the Secretary General, President Obama, and Prime Minister Zapatero.

Two crucial issues remained almost wholly off the table, and will need to be brought in sooner rather than later into future G20 deliberations. Exchange rates were hardly mentioned, despite the fact that exchange rate adjustments are surely needed to smooth the elimination of large and unsustainable global trade imbalances. Also, the increasingly fragile position of the dollar as the world's reserve currency was discreetly ignored. Monetary policy and exchange rates played a large role in the onset of the crisis, and we will need deep reforms of international monetary arrangements in order to secure a sustainable recovery.

..more..

[B Whale]

1. Beyond the expectations of capitalists yes. The

system we have been living through in this world recently is an extremist free market ideology driven by greed. It has no values or morals and profit is the only thing that matters.

On that basis it probably succeeded in trying to restart that same system. However why would they do anything else, why would turkey's vote for Christmas? It serves the same elite at the top of which they are all part.

This will do nothing to stop the genuine anger and demands on the streets of europe (next stop strasbourg...)

[G_j]

2. Did it deliver for the world's poorest?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7979909.stm

Did it deliver for the world's poorest?

By David Loyn,
BBC international development correspondent, G20 summit

In a letter to the Financial Times ahead of the G20 summit, a group of prominent economists, including the Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, said that the main test of the summit would be how it helped the poorest.


So how did it do?

Gordon Brown had been pushing for substantial assistance for the developing world, and said that in the end that was the focus of discussion, not the anticipated argument between Europe and the United States over banking regulation and the scale of fiscal stimulus needed.

What he achieved was a far more substantial package for the developing world than had been expected beforehand.
Of the $250 billion (£170bn) in 'Special Drawing Rights' - essentially short-term debt - $19 billion of that is earmarked for the poorest, least developing countries.

The sale of International Monetary Fund (IMF) gold will also make credit available many times in excess of the capital sum itself, once it goes through the system.

Trade boost

The measure that could make the most difference in the short term for the poorest countries is availability of $250bn of trade credit.
That figure too is larger than was anticipated before the summit. It will enable goods currently rotting on the quayside in Africa to move again.

That was the change that the poorest countries were pushing most.

..more..
............................
Now, we will see how "structural adjustment" plays into all this: They have ways of making the poor pay, and they usually do..

http://www.alternet.org/wire/7/g20leaderstogive1trilliontoimfworldbank


G-20 Leaders To Give $1 Trillion To IMF, World Bank
Posted on April 2, 2009 by The Huffington Post News Team.

LONDON — World leaders pledged $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to impoverished countries and agreed Thursday to crack down on tax havens and hedge funds but failed to reach sweeping accord on stimulus spending that would directly attack the global economic decline.

In a communique capping a dramatic one-day gathering, the leaders of the Group of 20 nations announced the creation of a supervisory body to flag problems in the global financial system. They did not, however, satisfy U.S. and British calls for new stimulus measures.

They did bridge the gap between the United States and some European nations over how far to regulate the market and curb the excesses that sparked the global economic crisis.

Thursday’s gathering was called in hopes of restoring faith in the global financial system _ and in one possible gauge of success, European and U.S. markets surged ahead as the outcome of the summit came into view.

"Today the largest countries of the world have agreed on a global plan for economic recovery and reform," said the host, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. His announcement was quickly followed by similar ones by the French and German leaders, who supported the results of the G-20 summit.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who earlier had threatened earlier to walk out if unsatisfied with the outcome, also praised President Barack Obama for helping to create consensus and persuade China to agree to publish lists...

Read the full story »

[B Whale]

3. Obvioulsy good news. I

love humanity and therefore anything that helps actual people i applaud. However we've been here before agaian and again, decade after decade, financial package and aid folows more and more.

Its all a sop frankly. The world economic system oppresses the poorest parts of the world and they keep anger at bay by offering them the crumbs.

People in Britain are certainly not prepared to turn back to that nonsense we've been living through and are demanding change. The leaders won't deliver genuine change for a fairer world because they are politically corrupted by their own ideologies.

[G_j]

5. I agree

and to be hoping the IMF, World Bank and WTO do the right thing is quite a stretch.
Often structural adjustment ends up taking away services to the poor.

I will hope though, because I love humanity too.

[B Whale]

7. we'll be hoping a long time i suspect

structural adjustments won't take services away from the poor, they will empower the poor. That's why they don't do it.

[B Whale]

4. Actually here's something tangible if

they genuinely gave a shit about people, rather than money.

They could have put together a small fiscal package to invest in all countries in science.

This would be directed specifically at a cure for malaria. Pharma companies have never looked for a cure because there's no profit in it, meanwhile 10s of millions of children die a painful death every year.

Simple and humane. Why, do you suggest, did they not come up with something like that?

[G_j]

6. probably because, as you said, there's no profit

wonderful idea though

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LynnTheDem]

9. Sigh. I do kinda feel sorry for you. It just can't be easy being so dumb.

But you LIKE being so dumb, dontcha.

[scarletwoman]

10. Your blog is really quite redundant here, we do our own Obama watching and analysis.

But, you'll be on your way soon enough, I imagine.

[leftofthedial]

11. good for global capitalist parasites

awful for the rest of us.

as is always the case with the g20