A Canadian ViewPoint on Obama and the G-20 (below) But first....Perhaps Geithner and Obama are artificially making the US credit to dry up, and the Unemployment rates at now double digits? Of course, this would mean that new business can't get a chance to begin, and since existing businesses can't get enough credit, can't hire back employees...
How much of the HUGE American Government spending of the last few years, and the over the top spending this year by Obama and troupe is now the reason that the American economy is in shambles?
I heard Geitner say today that Americans spend too much....So does that mean he and Obama are really causing the financial grief for this country????
Obama calls on G20 to help U.S. rebalance economy
calgaryherald.com.
By Sheldon Alberts, Washington Correspondent, Canwest News ServiceSeptember 24, 2009 8:33 PM
U.S. President Barack Obama and White House trip director Marvin Nicholson arrive at the Phipps Conservatory for an opening reception and working dinner for heads of delegation at the Pittsburgh G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Pa., Thursday. Obama opened the G20 leaders' summit Thursday by calling for agreement on a framework to dramatically rebalance the global economy.
Photograph by: REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer,
PITTSBURGH — U.S. President Barack Obama opened the G20 leaders’ summit Thursday by calling for agreement on a framework to dramatically rebalance the global economy, hoping to shift the responsibility for prolonged economic recovery off the American consumers and the heavily indebted U.S. government.
The U.S. leader is also expected to announce Friday that the G20 will replace the G8 as the main forum for global economic co-ordination, a U.S. official told reporters on Thursday.
It was unclear what this would mean for Canada’s plans to host the next G8 summit, scheduled to take place in June 2010 in Huntsville, Ont.
A Canadian spokesman said Prime Minister Stephen Harper would hold a joint event on Friday with the president of South Korea. South Korea holds the G20 chair next year and has lobbying to hold a summit.
On Thursday, Obama hosted G20 leaders for a working dinner on the first evening of a two-day summit already highlighted by potential fissures over the White House focus on fixing economic imbalances the U.S. says contributed to the global crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to balk at the U.S. agenda, and warned G20 leaders that the more urgent need is to more strictly regulate the financial industry, whose near collapse triggered the global economic meltdown a year ago.
“We have to make sure we learn the lessons of the crisis and make sure it is not repeated,” Merkel told reporters. "I have made clear we should not look for other topics and forget about financial market regulation.”
The G20 meeting began against a backdrop of intense security in downtown Pittsburgh, which was cordoned off and under virtual lockdown as leaders made their arrival.
Hundreds of police officers clad in riot gear patrolled the streets Thursday afternoon, occasionally using tear gas to disperse about 2,000 anti-globalization protesters. Coast-guard boats patrolled the Allegheny River below the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where the leaders will meet Friday.
A local TV station reported that a motorcade carrying the Russian delegation was diverted to avoid Thursday’s demonstrations.
Obama arrived in Pittsburgh seeking a consensus among G20 leaders for “sustainable and balanced growth” in the global economy that puts more onus for increased spending and consumption on nations such as China and Germany, which have huge trade surpluses. In particular, he wants China to expand its own social spending as a way to boost consumer demand for imported products.
The U.S. president is arguing the world can no longer rely on American consumer and government spending to drive economic growth.
“It’s very important that, as we lay a foundation for recovery, we don’t sow the seeds for future crises,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told reporters.
“In the run-up to this crisis, many of the world’s largest economies depended on the American consumer to buy their exports to drive growth, and we made it easy. For too long, Americans were buying too much and saving too little. And that’s no longer an option for us, or for the rest of the world.”
Despite Merkel’s reservations, Geithner told reporters “there’s very strong support” for Obama’s rebalancing proposal.
“Certainly, for the first time in a year, we’re seeing the first signs of optimism about prospects for global recovery,” he said. “This is encouraging, but we have a ways to go.”
The summit marks the third meeting of G20 leaders in less than a year, and follows a commitment in London last April to spur economic recovery through government stimulus.
Now, leaders are exploring “exit strategies” to transition away from stimulus measures amid signs of tentative growth in the world economy. But there is disagreement about how quickly to turn off the taps of government spending, and how dramatically to transform the broader global economy.
“You’ve got Americans in the lead saying, once we recover, we can’t go back to the imbalanced global economy of old,” said John Kirton, director of the G20 Research Centre at the University of Toronto.
“You’ve got China really not wanting to go very far at all on the imbalances, because they think they are target No. 1.”
Last week, Japan’s new government abruptly decided to suspend part of its $169-billion US stimulus program.
Merkel, facing elections in deficit-averse Germany this weekend, is also under pressure to curb government spending.
“There’s some chance that the second- and third-largest economies in the world will be seen to be defecting and rushing to the exits already,” said Kirton. “So getting the Japanese and the Germans to stay the course on stimulus is not a routine thing.”
Harper and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, meantime, have been among the leaders who contend the global economy remains too fragile to begin abandoning stimulus programs.
Earlier this week, Harper said G20 nations need to “make sure that the stimulus measures that have been put in place get fully delivered, and we do see the recovery in the economy that is less fragile, more sustained, more private-sector, investment-driving” growth.
“This has been unprecedented stimulus in its size, in its scope, in its innovative character. So nobody really knows how to exit from it to here,” said Kirton.
The question of bankers’ bonuses is also looming as a major issue at the summit, with Geithner expressing hope that a deal could be struck to rein in compensation for executives at large financial institutions.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy had threatened to walk out of the meeting unless leaders agreed to impose a specific “ceiling” on bankers’ compensation as a way to curb irresponsible risk-taking. The idea of a hard cap on bankers’ bonuses had been rejected by the United States, and leaders are working toward a joint statement that calls more generally for restraints on pay.
Canada has been among several nations advocating for bankers’ pay to be aligned with “prudent risk-taking, or making sure that compensation doesn’t become an incentive to taking too much risk,” said a senior Canadian official. “There’ll be an emphasis on things like deferring bonuses, building in clawbacks if performance deteriorates, and focusing bonuses on things like stock.”
The Canadian official said Harper would also press the case for tighter financial industry regulations, including the need for the world’s banks to be better capitalized.
“An important message the prime minister will deliver is that good progress has been made, but it is going to be very important that we don’t lose the momentum, going forward,” the official said.
Obama also comes to Pittsburgh seeking an agreement to gradually end government subsidies that promote the use of fossil fuels, part of his broader agenda to address global climate change.
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