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This past week, the
British government has hosted the G-20
Conference, more formally known as the
Group of Twenty Finance
Ministers and Central Bank Governors
conference. They met in London for the
purported purpose of promising stimulus
packages large enough to eliminate the
risk of a downward spiral in world
demand and output, to increase in
resources available to the IMF to
respond to the difficulties of emerging
countries, to agree on how to clean up
the financial mess without accelerating
disintegration of the global financial
system and to prevent or put an end to
protectionism. In all, it was a
monumental chore for countries that have
such diverse problems and
agendas--particularly given such a short
time to get things sorted out.
Obviously
President Obama was the star of the show
since it was his first meeting with the
various heads of state and luminaries
from around the world, all of whom were
there to see if he really could walk on
water.
Around
here, most of us never have never of the
G-20 or if we did, don’t know what it’s
for. I learned that it’s a larger
version of the G-7, a group that always
attracts a large number of protest
groups where ever it meets. There were
an estimated 35,000 assorted
malcontents, vandals and old hippies on
hand in London last week to protest
civilization in general and promote
anarchy in particular.
The thing
that most interested me about Obama’s
trip was the 200 Secret Service people
and 300 of his staff in his entourage,
all traveling on the taxpayer’s dime.
I’m sure it takes a fairly large staff
to enable the president to operate
overseas, but 300, what were they doing?
While the White House has declined to
estimate the cost of the trip, others
start the guessing at around $3 million.
I think the cost of the entire trip will
turn out to be a lot more. Considering
the state of the economy and the howl
let out by congress when Detroit
executives flew their own jets to
Washington a few months ago, this armada
of Obama’s seems more than a trifle
excessive. The mainstream media aren’t
saying anything about it though. They’re
more interested in telling us what
Michelle Obama is wearing.
The
outcome of the conference was
predictable. The group agreed to spend a
lot of money. The BBC said, “Leaders of
the world's largest economies have
reached an agreement to tackle the
global financial crisis with measures
worth $1.1 trillion (£681bn). To help
countries with troubled economies, the
resources available to the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) will be tripled to
$750bn.
There will
also be sanctions against secretive tax
havens and tougher global financial
regulation. And the G20 has committed
about $250bn to boost global trade.”
The
president said, “By any measure the
London summit was historic. It was
historic because of the size and the
scope of the challenges that we face and
because of the timeliness and the
magnitude of our response." To me,
that’s a spate of words meaning
essentially nothing. But I didn’t expect
him to say anything of substance because
he never does. British Prime Minister
Brown’s words followed a similar
pattern, “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.” Both of them are talented
orators with a flair for flowery
discourse, but they are both windbags.
It is
still open to debate whether this
one-day event was worth what it cost or
was it just another glorified photo-op
for the world media to fawn over the
Obamas.
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