Bad News (Mostly) From Britain

Ted Bromund / April 02, 2009

The G-20 summit communiqué has been released. As we predicted, it has something for everyone, though rather more for the Europeans than the Americans, and even less for the Chinese. And there are constructive points in it, though whether they will amount to much remains to be seen. But by and large, the communiqué marks a large step in the wrong direction for the U.S. and the world.

First, the summit has agreed to treble the resources of the IMF to $750 billion, to support $100 billion in funding for multilateral development banks, and to increase trade finance to poorer countries. The summit claims that these measures – presumably including the already-passed stimulus acts – will “by the end of next year, amount to $5 trillion, raise output by 4 percent, and accelerate the transition to a green economy.” (more…)