What was that G20 meeting about?
The weekend spectacular of the world leaders sucking down on the White house menu, with a brilliant dessert of pear torte followed by a Vermont brie served with walnut crostini. The conspiracy theory, well at least the one I want to start, is the Lame Duck President stuffed the G20 leaders, so blood would run from their heads to collective stomachs, making it less likely to achieve any change, not on his watch, successfully kicking the can down the road for Obama.
In the end Australian PM Kevin Rudd, the world leader pushing for this meeting the hardest, got what he wanted, a snub from the most hated US President ever, and the commitment from our buyers, China and Japan, that they would enforced some New Deal Keynesian prime pumping in the Asian Pacific area, with domestic government spending, Australia is likely to ride out this disaster, just like the last two, with North Asia's help.
The Europeans know they will have to wait till day 101 of Obama's administration to get the regulation, so Mrs Bush provided the food, to make the trans Atlantic weekend flight worth while for the fabulous quitwood-smoked quail with quince gastrique, followed by thyme-roasted rack of lamb with an aubergine fondue.
The EU is split, Brussels wants the London and New York Casinos shut down, but Brown has Bush's support to do no such thing, Obama may be just as hard, but Brown may be in such a weak position by April he may need German,French and Russia help.
So what did these leaders talk about? I imagine it was behind Bush's back.
How to get the world economy off the US dollar standard? Because between now and April 30, the US government will need at least another 1 trillion, and thats not going to come from the creditor nations, the Dollar is dead, the only thing left is how to orderly take the world onto a basket of currencies, the new gold standard without the gold bugs, and that basket, you can bet, will be the currencies of the same 20 countries that dirtied the plates at the white house.
For the American reader who wants to know what this means. No longer will US Banks be able to export the subprime deflation to the rest of the world. Sorry this time the great depression will stay where it started. And about those wars? Where is the money going to come from? Those Warlords in Afghanistan don't come cheap, and Pakistan just got snubbed by everyone other than the IMF.
It is the end of the American Century, and it only took 9 years. The good news is without the worries of the world, Obama can do a 21st century New Deal, with the support of not just the vast majority who voted for the change, but with the support of most of the G20, all he needs is take on the special interest on Wall Street.
ONLY?