http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/world/europe/1194811622213/index.html#1194839116960
President Obama’s recent trip to Europe for the G20 was relatively successful. Obama called it a “historic agreement” yet it seemed like more of a photo shoot than actually creating new policy. The true success of the meeting seemed to come in the form of a united desire to work collectively to help the world economy. Still there were a wide range of solutions that were proposed. European counties such as France and Germany were looking to promote the creation of a global finance police. Other countries such as Russia are looking to pay bailouts with no strings attached relying fully upon the free market. This goes to show that although all of the countries said that they want to work together on this they all are going to go their separate ways where actual policy is concerned. This meeting should not be judged a success until it is certain that these words will be followed up with wide spread international policy.
What this meeting did foster is more of the confidence that everyone thinks is vital if the financial system is going to recover. On the day the US markets rose with the meeting showing that the meeting certainly ended on a positive note and shows how important this confidence is. The specific things that did get accomplished such as the 250 billion to boost world trade and the 750 billion given to the IMF seem like causes that are extremely broad and ineffective ways of using collective resources. Many developing countries that have received aid from the IMF have complained heavily due to the nature of the organization. Instead of this lip service to the world economic issue countries need to start coming together more removing local trade barriers and promoting the international flow of money. If the G20 was really a historic agreement then a lot more would have been accomplished.
3 comments:
Even though we can't say that we came out of G20 with new policies that the world can immediately put in place, one has to look at the international meeting and say that it was overall a success. It might have been more of a "photo shoot" than an international meeting consisting of the world's leaders, but one simple thing was achieved on April 2: confidence. With the economy in the state that it is in right now, not only in America but throughout the world, any step forward is one that should be greatly appreciated. It would be foolish to think that international trade was going to improve vastly through this meeting. As made clear in the article, each country wants to work together and improve the state of the global economy, but each wants to do its own thing to get this done. Until countries get on the same page with each other we shouldn't expect to see a vast improvement regarding the international economy. For example, there was a huge debate between France and China regarding taxes that almost derailed the meeting, which is something that people around the world certainly do not want to see. If the leaders of these countries cannot come to agreement, how can countries deal with one another? Something that can be done, however, is boosting the confidence of people throughout the world, and this is an important step in restoring the economy to the state it was once in. There are small signs of this happening already, most notably the rise of the U.S. markets on the same day as the meeting. Boosted confidence will help the economies in individual nations, and as people gain confidence in their nation's economy, so too should they gain confidence in the global economy. And this factor is more important than ever. Our planet is more globalized than ever before, and if countries do not have confidence in one another and cannot do business throughout the world, everything that we have been working on to build over the past decades (cross-cultural understanding, expanding companies globally, promoting capitalism and democracy, etc.) will go to waste. Overall, an efficient global economy should be a high priority for the leaders who attended G20; even though this most recent meeting did not do anything "groundbreaking," it certainly set up a good jumping pad for improvements in the future.
I think that confidence is a major factor in the success of the G20 meeting that currently took place, and maybe is the only major success that resulted from the meeting. This confidence should not be overlooked because in a time of financial insecurity and low self-esteem of many people around the world, instilling confidence back into the lives of those people is not an easy feat, and should be noted and taken seriously. If confidence was the only matter tackled during that G20 meeting, it would be a triumph by anyone’s standards in this current era.
An aspect of the G20 meeting that is imperative to highlight, however, is that all of the global leaders that were present made an effort to decentralize the United States as an economic power, and they increased the role of international institutions and emerging markets outside of the states. The leaders also guarantee to triple the resources of the IMF and to hand China and other developing economies a greater say in the management of the world economy. These improvements made by the group of 20 will end in achievement for all countries involved. Especially in the current economic state of the United States, and the world in general, the national leaders do not necessarily have the time to participate in a “photo shoot” and delve into flimsy ideas. They all realize that there is an essential need for a crack down on policies, and they need to be implemented at once.
At this meeting, there was a lot at stake. Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, who helped prepare summits for presidents Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan said, "The U.S. is becoming less dominant while other nations are gaining influence." If this meeting had not gone as well as it did, it would have set back the world economy, just as signs of backing out of this crisis were coming into short sight.
Further research into some of the actual accomplishments of the G20 have shown some progress and may go a long way to temporarily help many developing countries. Developing countries are the ones that are hit the hardest during worldwide economic recession as world trade declines. One of the actual accomplishments of the G20 was the $750 billion that was given to the IMF. This is not a new strategy and this money is in fact only being used boost their lending resources. The IMF has been lending monetary support to developing countries for years and what is being found is that many of them are not capable of paying back these loans which accomplishes little in solving the global economic crisis. The funds that were given as a symbol of new international economic policy are in fact likely to be a detriment to global markets in the near future. It is hard for developed countries to donate some of their resources at a time when they are lacking in growth themselves, but these loans are likely to only make the problem worse.
http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/faq/sdrfaqs.htm
The G20 is likely to show more success as countries live up to the statement that was agreed upon by all who were there and focused upon things like jobs, credit markets, and global trade. The countries that met acknowledged that the poorest countries have been hit hardest by the decline in international trade and it is important that a priority is set on boosting confidence in global markets. Furthermore making sure developing countries have enough availability to credit so that they can fuel their growth is a vital part of revitalizing a countries economy. The last fact that they are going to concentrate upon creating jobs is a common goal that is likely to remain foremost for many countries as they are forced to concentrate upon internal affairs and their own issues.
http://www.londonsummit.gov.uk/resources/en/news/15766232/communique-020409
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