G20: No Return to 'Bad Old Days'

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Source: VOA

The world's leading and developing economies are forging a new, global approach to economics, declaring an end to the era of risky behavior by big banks.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Friday reaffirmed comments by the United States that the Group of 20 will become the world's "premier international organization" on economic matters.

Mr. Brown also said G20 leaders meeting in the eastern U.S. city of Pittsburgh will be much tougher on banks and big financial firms than many people expect, promising "There is no return to the bad old days."

Limiting the risk-taking by big banks was one of the most contentious issues in the lead-up to the summit. But G20 officials say leaders are close to a deal that would control bonuses for bank executives and tie their compensation to the performance of their financial institutions.


Read more: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-25-voa37.cfm

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Sounds like some serious butt-covering in on the agenda.

[corpseratemedia]

1. well, there's little to nothing left to take, is there?

now they can pretend to be the "good guys"

[CHIMO]

2. BS

Just grabbing the headlines.

Report: US-Initiated WTO Rules Could Undermine Regulatory Overhaul of Global Finance

LORI WALLACH: There’s an incredible contradiction, where the summit communiqué is going to, on one hand, talk about regulating finance, and at the same time, they’re going to talk about adopting the Doha WTO expansion, and a huge part of that agreement is deregulating finance.

And the problem is that the G-20 commitments aren’t binding. It’s a commitment of faith on the countries about what they’re going to do domestically. But the WTO rules are very binding and enforceable by sanctions. And so, it’s hard to know if it’s ignorance or it’s cynicism, but if the Doha round goes into place, all of the world’s countries will have a commitment not only to keep in place the existing WTO deregulation dictates on finance, but to deregulate further, right in the midst of what seems to be a global commitment to re-regulate.

LORI WALLACH: Well, see, this is the most peculiar aspect of it. The European Union, as you just mentioned, Angela Merkel, among others, have been pushing for more regulation, and in fact they want the G-20 to have a—to establish a global floor of regulation. The US hasn’t been for that. It’s not going to be in this communiqué, but they’ve really been pushing. But simultaneously, it’s the European Union that is the major instigator of deregulation.

And so, the big development is we finally were able to get documents that actually explain what the plan is for the WTO Doha round, and it’s the European Union that’s been pushing the worst of it. I mean, they literally want a provision that is a standstill, a freeze in place, on regulation, while simultaneously they’re calling for re-regulation. You can’t have it both ways.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/25/report_us_initiated_wto_rules_could
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2009/sept/video/dnB20090925a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=00:09:19

[Deja Q]

5. +1

[Ghost Dog]

3. See related nastiness on this in the Torygraph

here: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100001043/germany-declares-economic-war/

and in comments...

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4. Damn shame they aren't getting along.

:sarcasm:

The comments are fascinating.