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In a day of breathless diplomacy in London, ranging across arms control and financial capitalism, Brown and Barack Obama emphasised a developing convergence, only for Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, to lay down "non-negotiable red lines" on issues such as hedge funds and tax havens which they insisted had to be met today and not deferred until future gatherings.

Far from rowing back from the aggressive posturing which Sarkozy had adopted before flying to London, the French leader resumed the theme, saying this was no time for making "fancy speeches" and dismissing the idea of a summit later in the year. Speaking at a Knightsbridge hotel, he said he trusted Obama, but he blamed America, saying: "The crisis didn't actually spontaneously erupt in Europe, did it?"


Thoughts ?

I am pretty supportive, the G(however many they feel like) are pretty awesome at doing nothing on an international scale. It would be good to see some tangible results from the summit.
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these things are a waste of time (or seem to be)... they agree to do stuff and then do completely the opposite once home

only good thing about these conferences is its one time the public get to show their feelings... via protest, one dead so far
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Was going to comment on that, the riots have more coverage than the G20 itself atm Razz
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that might be that a lot of the deals and discussions are behind closed doors... and only embedded reporters allowed entry

democracy it is not
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Interesting - I think there is a growing anti-American sentiment in this all especially because the news about AIG and Wall Street type corporate money guzzling gives the general perception that it is rife in America (which it may be) - and therefore the who the f*** are you to be telling us anything? mood grows.

G20 is about as successful in putting things off to the future as the Kyoto Protocol is. Utterly pointless in their current format and level of commitment by the biggest players.
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I'd suggest the anti US action isn't gorwing, rather this is one of those rare occassions the Europeans can publically be so bold in the US's face... good for their home electorates
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krauts and usa are most divergent in their goals - germans are generally fiscally prudent. also germans know that in reality they are alone against the russkies and so want to accomodate them more i.e less supportive of NATO expansion.
USA wants to get in bed with Turkey. Obama has a planned visit there.
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US status as the big boy died a while ago. In contrast to the first Iraq war of 1991 when the rich nations coughed up and paid America for wageing war, in 2003 donations/grants to support the second invasion were less than one eighth of the US's $36 billion target.
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So the BBC was reporting one of the outcomes as:
- Bankers' pay bonuses will be subject to strict controls.

Which I thought was pretty absurd, but having read the communique and then looking up the Policy Paper of the FSF that it refers to, it's actually quite good. It proposes a standard that links short-term incentives to board-level risk management principles which I completely agree have been lacking.
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I cant understand why corporations dont get this and structure their bonuses accordingly. I mean its pretty obvious that individiuals will take excessive risk if incentivised to do so. we all know markets climb the stairs but fall out the window.
why does the govt need to get involved in this??? its stupid knee jerk political stuff...

re GTO
I saw some article referring to more SDR's being utilised.... i.e more signs that the hegemony of the USDollar is drawing to a close...
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Are you seriously asking why the government needs to get involved ?
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resist said:
Are you seriously asking why the government needs to get involved ?

No, I believe peat is asking why companies didn't work this out for themselves (which I totally agree with, risk management just went out the window). He's not disputing that they haven't
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you could argue that it is partly the govts interventions that have caused this through the deposit guarantees in the US etc.
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Oh ok GW. Yeah I totally agree that corporations should have worked this stuff out for themselves, but capitalism doesn't reward people who don't take risks Razz
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walking out your door to work in the morning is a risk.