Posted by
Cassandra on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 1:27:14 PM
What's
with this G20 summit last weekend in Washington? Who are the G20? The
MSM as usual abdicated their duty - did what they do best: what they
cannot spin or obfuscate, they bury.
Initial research learns that the G20 have emerged from the the Doha Trade Round, set up on the basis of a Brazilian initiative in the run-up to the Cancun Conference. Apart of the states making up the G8, G20 member states
include Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi
Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the EU and European Central
Bank, and the NGOs IMF, the World Bank and their Development Committee.
With
the notable exception of South Korea neither of these countries has a
principled tradition of free market capitalism. All, until recently
suffered, or are still bowing under the rule of theocrats, autocrats,
dictators, a collective, or all of the above.
The Third World is
slowly crawling on to the world stage, out of its largely self-imposed,
poverty ridden, Marxism or theocracy driven lethargy. But swathes of
Latin America are already in danger of regressing back into darkness,
even before having fully emerged from it; Socialist as well as Islamic
beginnings are simply antithetical to individual rights, the moral
requirement for a fully functioning free-market democracy.
And then there's good, old chauvinist commie prop. The Heritage Foundation here reports on the PR stunt China pulled just ahead of the summit!
What can be expected of such a global, economic governing body? They cannot even be trusted to handle a trade round,
let alone lead, run and reform the world's economic and financial
system. How would they do that ... by committee, by revelation, or by
decree?!
The situation is hardly better in the state of Europe, which is steadily desolving into a post-democratic, Hegelian Absolute.
European states are challenging American leadership of the global
economy, calling on President-Elect Obama to embrace Europe as
America’s equal partner.
Soeren Kern on The Brussels Journal had this to say last week: "The idea behind this new man-to-man relationship with Washington was hatched by (surprise, surprise) France, which currently holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says the reason for
establishing an equal transatlantic partnership is that “the world has
changed.”
Europe has
suddenly realized that the United States “is not the only one concerned
by the world’s problems. The European Union has become more resolute….
We don’t want to play a secondary role any more,” says Kouchner," who is an experienced NGO builder (founder Doctors Without Borders).
On the economy the French - as most Europeans - can be fully trusted to commit a coup of state against the private sector. Soeren Kern: "Self-regulation to solve all problems, it’s finished,” Sarkozy says.
“Laissez-faire, it’s finished. The all-powerful market that is always
right, it’s finished…. It is necessary then for the state to intervene.”
John Gizzi on Human Events goes as far as saying the G20 meeting was in effect Sarkozy's summit, clarifying
"that
the goal of the French President, was future international economic
summits that include many more nations beside the traditional G8
industrial titans. His secondary goal was to assimilate discretionary
bondholders (countries that hold U.S. debt) into the summits (...)
John Gizzi
gives us the gist of what emerged from the summit: "(...) Sarkozy did
get this long-stated desire of a "college of supervisors" for oversight
of the books of major financial institutions operating across
international borders. Moreover, the world leaders agreed that their
systems would submit to periodic review by the International Monetary
Fund (whose Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former French
finance minister who was tapped for the IMF position by—you guessed
it!—Nicolas Sarkozy).
A
tougher line by ratings agencies on exhorbitant compensation for
executives–either voluntary or regulatory—was called for in the final
communiqué of the G20. Again, this was an issue doggedly pursued by
Sarkozy.
With much of the actual work
of the summit done behind closed doors, the media has had to rely on
reports from anonymous sources on who said what to whom. Relying on
such sources, the Washington Post pointed to Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper as one who was particularly opposed to Sarkozy’s calls
for greater global regulation over markets in sovereign nations.
We
are looking at an entire round of talks stretching well into the next
year. Apart from the above, nothing much emerged from present summit
while outgoing President Bush acted as a forceful buffer against the
anti capitalist onslaught. But as postmodern President-Elect Obama
joins the company of Argentina, China and the other card-carrying
members of the Grizzly 20 collective, we will soon all be reminded of
which cloth that philosophy is a cut.
Related:
- "Hurray! It's the Weekend of Capitalism!"
- Images - Hat Tip:
Barbay Live
Buzz up!vote now
- Filed in
"Transnational Bankruptcy" and
"The Economics and Monetary Dossier" -