(Russian PM) Putin, (Chinese Premier) Wen urge new financial order

[sabra]

Source: CNN

DAVOS, Switzerland (CNN) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called Wednesday for the complete reform of the world’s financial system during keynote speeches at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

The global economic meltdown dominated the agenda on the opening day of the annual meeting of powerbrokers and opinion formers, with Putin telling delegates that the crisis constituted a “perfect storm.”

While economists and analysts could — and should — have predicted the crisis, Putin said, instead it had “come unexpectedly, just as winter comes unexpectedly to Russia every year.”

He said it is time to “do away with virtual money” and establish an “economy of real values” grounded in a “just and efficient global economic architecture.”

Read more: http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/28/putin-wen-urge-new-financial-order/

[Taverner]

1. Do away with virtual money - well there goes the credit industry

[endarkenment]

2. ruh-roh

probably nobody much cares what Russia thinks ought to be done, on the other hand China might just be holding all the cards right now.

[tama]

4. When Russia thinks right

or at least in right direction, the West does not care what Russia thinks to it's own peril. Doomed, pitiful West. Sympathy for the Devil... :)

[JVS]

11. China and Russia working together can do a lot.

China, Russia, and the Middle East working together would rule the world.

[Miss Chybil]

3. I wish I was virtually rich.

Even fake money doesn't trickle down to me!

[ElboRuum]

10. If I were in charge of the DUzys

This one would get it. P.S. You win the thread!

[Coventina]

5. Russia and China Blame Capitalists

Source: New York Times

DAVOS, Switzerland — The leaders of the former bastions of the Communist bloc took the stage here on Wednesday to rebuke their capitalist brothers for dragging the world into crisis but also to assure them that, working together, they can rapidly restore the global economy to health.

In the official opening address of the World Economic Forum, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke of a financial “perfect storm” that has decimated the old system, rendering it obsolete.

“A year ago, American delegates speaking from this rostrum emphasized the U.S. economy’s fundamental stability and its cloudless prospects,” he said, speaking through a translator. “Today, investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have virtually ceased to exist.”

But the damage goes beyond Wall Street, he said. “The entire economic growth system, where one regional center prints money without respite and consumes material wealth, while another regional center manufactures inexpensive goods and saves money printed by other governments, has suffered a major setback.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/world/europe/29davos.html?ref=world

[YOY]

6. Funny thing is: they're just as capitalist in their own little ways...

Adorably hypocrticial...

[chusmeria]

7. I don't think he's pointing out that they're not capitalist

He even points to a regional producer of goods that hoards the money while producing inexpensive goods (China), and the regional producer of money but little real goods (the US). Russia is somewhere in between those two. The US just dragged them into those positions through trade agreements, etc. and that model is a large reason the world economy is in a recession. It should never have expanded in that manner.

[NashVegas]

9. And We're Just As Communist

With our top-down, forced economic model.

[HopeHoops]

8. Um, the STORY is "latest", but the subject is SO 1950's

[SergeyDovlatov]

12. there are more good things in the speech, for example:

Unfortunately, we are increasingly hearing the argument that the build-up of military spending could solve today's social and economic problems. The logic is simple enough. Additional military allocations create new jobs.

At a glance, this sounds like a good way of fighting the crisis and unemployment. This policy might even be quite effective in the short term. But in the longer run, militarisation won't solve the problem but will rather quell it temporarily. What it will do is squeeze huge financial and other resources from the economy instead of finding better and wiser uses for them.

...

Frankly speaking, we all know that provoking military and political instability, regional and other conflicts is a helpful means of distracting the public from growing social and economic problems. Such attempts cannot be ruled out, unfortunately.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123317069332125243.html