G-20's New Proposals

We had a quiz about G-20 economies in my last post. This is an important group, so I want to educate you on who they are. Not all members are countries, that's why they are spoken of as economies. Here is the membership:

Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Canada
China

European Union
France
Germany
India
Indonesia

Italy
Japan
Mexico
Russia
Saudi Arabia

South Africa
South Korea
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States of America


Last week they met in Pittsburgh and made sweeping promises to fix a malfunctioning global economic system in hopes of heading off future financial meltdowns. NPR provided good coverage on this subject.

They agreed to keep stimulus plans in place in their respective countries to avoid derailing the global economic recovery--which is still quite fragile.

They will require members to subject their economic policies to the scrutiny of a peer review process that will determine whether they are "collectively consistent" with sustainable global growth.

They promised tighter and more coordinated financial regulation.

They vowed anew to "reject protectionism in all its forms." It will be interesting to see if the US adheres to that pledge--given important violations we have made this year.

They pledged to withdraw government subsidies from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas linked to global warming.

These are sweeping pledges, but don't hold your breath:

• The leaders failed to define how to accomplish many of these goals,

• They did not determine how the peer review process would be enforced, and

• They failed to mention that previous pledges to avoid protectionism had been ignored by nearly all 20 members.