G20 finance ministers, central bank governors meet in Sao Paulo
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/08/content_10328083.htm
SAO PAULO, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Finance ministers and central bank
governors from the Group of 20 (G20) major industrial and emerging-
market countries begin their annual meeting here Saturday to seek ways
to weather the global financial crisis.
Participants at the two-day meeting are expected to discuss the
current global financial situation, said Marcos Galvao, international
affairs secretary of the Brazilian Finance Ministry.
Discussions on the cause of the crisis, the worst since the 1930s, and
its impact on commodity prices, inflation and exchange rates are also
on the agenda, he said.
Addressing the gathering, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva called for a "new world financial architecture" in the wake of
the current financial crisis.
The Brazilian government had earlier said it would propose greater
participation of developing countries in restructuring the global
financial system at the meeting.
Any progress made at the event will be presented to the first G20
leaders' summit scheduled for Nov. 15 in Washington D.C.
Founded in 1999 as an informal arena to facilitate dialogue
between major industrial and emerging-market countries, the G20
accounts for 85 percent of the world's economy and about two-thirds of
the world's population.
G-20 Discusses More Interest-Rate Cuts, Flaherty Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a24GKseqaW7I&refer=home
Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Finance officials from the Group of 20 nations
meeting in Sao Paulo today are discussing the possibility of further
cuts in interest rates in a bid to limit the damage from the global
credit crisis, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.
``The U.K. made a fairly dramatic rate drop this week and there's more
discussion here about that subject,'' Flaherty said in an interview.
``There's less room for the U.S. as you know than Canada.''
Canada's central bank joined the Fed, the European Central Bank and
the Bank of England in an unprecedented coordinated interest rate cut
on Oct. 8 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sent
credit markets into seizure. All four banks have followed up with
further reductions since then, with the U.K. announcing Nov. 6 the
biggest rate cut since 1992.
Flaherty said coordinated fiscal stimulus, as is being proposed by
U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the International Monetary Fund,
may not win support because some countries can't afford to increase
spending.
Central banks in emerging economies may also join a renewed rate-
cutting effort as policy makers battle to contain the fall- out from a
crisis that's set to drag the world's leading industrial economies
into a recession together for the first since the Second World War.
China, India, Mexico
Mexican Deputy Finance Minister Alejandro Werner today said his
country's central bank, which hasn't lowered borrowing costs since the
credit crisis began 15 months ago, has scope to cut rates after food
and commodities prices fell.
``Interest rates like the one we have now are no longer necessary,''
Werner said in an interview.
China cut its key interest rate for the third time in two months on
Oct. 29 while the Reserve Bank of India on Nov. 1 lowered its main
interest rate for the second time in two weeks.
Flaherty said ``there are ongoing conversations about who plans to do
what when'' on interest rates. ``I expect that these discussions will
lead to some degree of coordinated action,'' he told reporters today
ahead of the G-20 talks.
Governments in emerging countries are also stepping up their
independent responses as the financial crisis spreads to their
economies.
Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so-called BRIC nations, plan
coordinated measures to increase trade and capital flows between their
economies, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said in an interview
today. India, Russia and Brazil have already injected funds into
commercial banks and South Korea last week unveiled a ($10.8 billion)
fiscal stimulus plan.
`House of Cards'
``This is a global crisis and demands global solutions,'' Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said. ``The G-7 alone is not in
conditions to conduct the world economy. The participation of the
developing world is essential.''
Lula told delegates that the world's financial system ``collapsed like
a house of cards'' and called on rich nations to increase regulation.
The U.S. and the EU are tussling over proposals to tighten up
financial regulation. European leaders want to give the IMF
responsibility for financial stability around the world. The U.S.
opposes any international regulator with cross-border authority,
according to a senior U.S. official.
``We are pleased that European leaders, in a statement released
yesterday, recognized the importance of coordinating responses to the
financial crisis,'' President Bush's spokesman Dana Perino said in an
e-mailed note. ``The summit will be an important opportunity to
highlight this common ground and our shared commitment to enhanced
international cooperation and coordination, as well as to reaffirm a
commitment to free market principles.''
On 6 nov, 19:24, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Your proposal is mostly inline to what will be approved. But,
>
> Is American media what transfer information to American people. I have
> no idea how they will trasfer it along the next two years or so, the
> shorter necesary period to accomplish all those tasks. I do not know
> if they will decide to blame at Bush, or at Obama, or at China, or at
> Muslims, or at inmigration, or at a new scapegoat that they fabricate.
>
> They had to make a decission. We either create a new currency for
> international trade or we use the US dollar.
>
> The first choice will take a lot of time and a lot of regulations as
> that currency would have to be stable against major currencies. We
> should create an international mechanism to counter speculators and
> keep major national currencies stable against such international
> currency. Even it should have to counter speculation from national
> central banks that could suddenly print trillions of their domestic
> currency, and then, the rest of the world should have to pay for its
> wrongdoings. Also, it would require to change trillions of contracts,
> agreements, etc. among corporations involved in foreign trade. And
> also, it would produce the collapse of the US dollar.
>
> The second choice allows to walk this path step by step. The price to
> pay is that USA has no longer a central bank and a national currency.
> But, in fact, the Fed does not belong to USA and the US dollar is the
> currency of the Fed, not the currency of USA. I mean, USA already lost
> its central bank and its national currency decades ago. Yes, this will
> have a politic price in the public opinion arena, but not in real
> economic arena, not in the global economy. The change is as easy as
> some banks sell their shares to the IMF and the Fed gets "divorced" of
> the US Congress requirements. Just formal steps that can be
> accomplished in few days when everything will be ready.
>
> You wrote <<But why not have all solutions go through the IMF. In
> other words, the sovereign funds can loan money to the IMF to be used
> in accordance with such and such rules. If the US has complied then
> they can borrow the money. If the US has not complied, the funds will
> not be available to them.>>. Roughly, that is the plan. In further
> steps, countries will allow the IMF to print money and/or to lend
> money to national central banks acconding to the global needs, and
> national economic needs under international monitoring. Probably using
> US dollars.
>
> <<We will be "forced" by outside realities to bite the bullet.>>
> Right, that is the plan. Not just USA, all countries will be part of
> the global community on condition that their policies comply with such
> minimum healthy requirements that the IMF will define. as the Peterson
> Institute for International Economics stated in the link that I posted
> above. But, as prof. Rogoff wrote "Without its own currency, the IMF
> is poorly positioned to intervene with the overwhelming force needed
> for lender-of-last-resort operations", or, in other words, as the
> global central bank that can inject funds into economies though local
> central banks. To make the IMF allowed to print US dollars, the Fed,
> the true owner of the US dollar, must be formally and legally subject
> to IMF jusrisdiction, not to US Congress nor to its current owners
> (the Western major banks) only. You are ready for such announcement,
> but I am afraid that most Americans and Westerners are not, it will be
> as shocking at least, as when Nixon announced that the US dollar will
> not be backed by gold any longer.
>
> The recent agreements of the Fed allowing other central banks to print
> US dollars on swap premises, is a useful example on how this mechanism
> will work in the future. It worked fine. However, it has to be
> refined, national central banks have to commit to keep a certain
> exchange rate and those agreements must be formally approved by the
> international community through the IMF. And probably, we will find
> that further refinement must be done as we discover "holes" in such
> agreements along time.
>
> Peace and best wishes.
>
> Xi
>
> On 6 nov, 17:21, Justice <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
>
> > I wish the truth could be known now. Because of the politics in my
> > country, waiting for the inevitable only means that the blame will
> > fall squarely on the man who inherits the problems, and not the man
> > responsible for the problems.
>
> > Pushing in favor of rules now is a good thing. It's something he can
> > take back home to the Congress, and tell them what's in the wind if we
> > do not do the right thing. We will be "forced" by outside realities
> > to bite the bullet.
>
> > But why not have all solutions go through the IMF. In other words,
> > the sovereign funds can loan money to the IMF to be used in accordance
> > with such and such rules. If the US has complied then they can borrow
> > the money. If the US has not complied, the funds will not be
> > available to them.
>
> > That's something that could be accomplished now. It doesn't require
> > subsuming the FED per se, it requires that all of America would be
> > under the new rules starting immediately.
>
> > It's not too soon for me -- better now to blame Bush than wait and
> > find the man most likely to help will be blamed and hurt??
>
> > On Nov 6, 10:48 am, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > > Obviously what I wrote above is just my opinion and just at the date
> > > when I wrote it. Talks and sharings are still on its way and nothing
> > > has been formally agreed.
>
> > > Peace and best wishes.
>
> > > Xi
>
> > > On 6 nov, 16:45, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > > > During the last weeks most think tanks, governmental agencies and
> > > > departments, international organizations, universities, etc. are
> > > > working hard (or should have been) to prepare the summit on November
> > > > 15th.,
>
> > > > Which are the current positions? Basically three, or two dot five.
>
> > > > The first one, although it has no posibility at this point, is the
> > > > right wing wish, to do nothing too significant except to take funds
> > > > from developing countries to fund recovery in developed ones in the
> > > > hope that, somehow, it will produce developent in dveloping countries
> > > > later. Again the top-down approach.
>
> > > > The third one, although it has no posibility to win today, is to
> > > > approve the road map to fix the real problems. It means not just a
> > > > change in the financial order and its institutions, such as the IMF,
> > > > but also to change the monetary practices and in particular the
> > > > international currency. I must understand that public opinions in the
> > > > West, and in particular in USA, are not ready for such announcements,
> > > > specially when a new administration will come within some weeks.
> > > > Politics is above economics, I accept it. Then, we will have to see
> > > > more emergency summits along the next two years.
>
> > > > In the middle, the second one. As I wrote some weeks ago, that summit
> > > > will approve three strategies:
>
> > > > 1. To set up a new financial toolkit that becomes mandatory for
> > > > financial institutions of any sort since rating agencies to commercial
> > > > banks. Enhancing and fixing current agreements such as Basel 2 and the
> > > > Financial Stability Forum (FSF). Obviously, international monitoring
> > > > institutions have to be created or empowered.
>
> > > > As the The Peterson Institute for International Economics states (1)
> > > > "The objective should be to turn the IMF into a body where national
> > > > authorities agree on the outlines of what each of them will legislate.
> > > > In particular, one envisages that an international agreement made in
> > > > the IMF will lay down minimum standards that all countries will
> > > > ensure. The actual tasks of regulation and supervision will remain
> > > > national responsibilities."
>
> > > > Now, the developed nations have to leave Wonderland and face the real
> > > > world. No country will fund them any longer unless those who really
> > > > own the economic means control that their funds are used properly.
>
> > > > As as example, it means that US economic policy will not longer be
> > > > allowed to use "shopping and tax cuts the official macroeconomic
> > > > policy of the United States." (2) as Jeffrey Sachs writes in an
> > > > article that I strongly recommend to my American friends.
>
> > > > Although as prof. Kenneth Rogoff wrote today (3) "Without its own
> > > > currency, the IMF is poorly positioned to intervene with the
> > > > overwhelming force needed for lender-of-last-resort operations. In
> > > > principle, the IMF could be allowed to print money (it already has its
> > > > own accounting unit, the so-called Special Drawing Rights). But this
> > > > is not realistic, given the lack of an adequate system for global
> > > > governance.".
>
> > > > Probably he has not received information on the proposal to
> > > > subordinate the Fed to a part of the IMF and the US dollar the
> > > > currency of the IMF. In any case,. this step will not be approved on
> > > > November. Therefore, we will have to let that the rules approved in
> > > > November fail and public opinion in the West will be ready for next
> > > > steps.
>
> > > > 2. To create an international structure that reflects the real
> > > > situation of the economic and financial order. The West, in particular
> > > > USA, has a huge capacity to create global problems, but is Asia which
> > > > has a huge capacity to fix them. To balance the power in the IMF and
> > > > other international institutions will be a second achievement. The
> > > > West cannot count on blank checks any longer to fix their problems. In
> > > > particular while it still shows doubts on sovereign wealth funds that
> > > > is exactly where the solution will come from.
>
> > > > 3. And finally, the obvious one. The summit itself. This gathering
> > > > shows and
>
> ...
>
> leer más »
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