Main focus of Monday, March 16, 2009

G20 debates concepts for dealing with the crisis

At a meeting in Horsham, southern England, the finance ministers of the leading industrialised and emerging nations (G20) have reached a consensus on measures to be taken against the economic and financial crisis. However the US's call for an internationally coordinated stimulus package remains contentious. The meeting served as preparation for the G20's London Summit on April 2.

The Independent - United Kingdom

The Independent writes that Germany is right to wait for a positive sign from the first economic stimulus package: "If anything of significance emerged from the finance ministers' meeting ... it was that Germany and France, and perhaps others, are keener to talk about regulation than about money. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who met Mr Brown even as the finance ministers were in conclave, said, in typically down-to-earth fashion, that she wanted to see what effect Germany's big stimulus would have before authorising anything more. Ms Merkel may be blamed abroad for lacking esprit de corps. But she is right to insist that good money is not sent after bad." (16/03/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » Global

Financial Times Deutschland - Germany

The finance ministers of the G20 countries have achieved little in the fight against the downward spiral of financial crisis and recession, writes the Financial Times Deutschland: "On the one hand the governments are still pondering how to free banks from toxic securities and restore confidence in financial markets. ... On the other hand in the run-up to the summit of the heads of state and government at the beginning of April the question remains whether the G20 states are doing enough to stimulate the economy. ... In this respect it is a step backward that the US, which had rightly called on Europeans to increase their commitment, now accepts that stimulating the economy is the business of individual states. As necessary as creating a new basis for the financial system is, it would be fatal for regulatory reform to replace the fight against recession." (16/03/2009)

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Delo - Slovenia

The daily Delo voices doubt that the G20 summit in London will be able to fulfil the high expectations. "During their consultations the finance ministers convened in Horsham in central England were only able to bring things down to a small common denominator, namely the promise of 'intensified efforts for increasing economic growth' without defining any more precisely what those efforts would be. This indicates a disagreement with the US. Notwithstanding the resolute tone the answers of the G20 sound insubstantial, perhaps also because they want to leave the decision to the leaders at the London summit - provided the latter are at all capable of reaching agreement given the disparate interests involved." (16/03/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Europe, » U.S., » Global
All available articles from » Bozo Masanovic

La Repubblica - Italy

With an eye to the upcoming G20 summit in London the left-liberal daily La Repubblica predicts there will be disagreement between Europe and the US. "The EU appears to have finally reached an agreement. It wants rules to prevent future disasters. … [But] even if no one in Brussels is saying so out loud, there is the suspicion that Washington's vehement insistence on the need to increase financial aid conceals a lack of will on the part of America to commit to taking the forefront in regulating the markets through collective and coordinated action. It is up to US President Barack Obama during his first visit across the Atlantic as president to dispel the fears and distrust of his European allies, who have been painfully wounded by the financial disaster of the Bush era." (16/03/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Europe, » U.S.
All available articles from » Andrea Bonanni

El País - Spain

The Spanish daily El País hopes that the G20 summit in London will mark the turning point in the battle against the crisis: "The upcoming meeting of the G20 in London can in fact do much to ease our approach to the global crisis. But it can also confirm the scepticism of those who fatalistically assume that such concerted international cooperation will achieve nothing. To avoid disappointment the large economices must decide to significantly raise public spending - at least to the extent aimed at by the new US government. Only in this way the spiral of unemployment and deflation can be stopped." (15/03/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Europe, » U.S., » Global

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