Het Neoliberale Geloof 405

G20 Leaders Begin Talks to Bury 'Free' Markets

By News Team International/Pool/PA

April 03, 2009 "The Times" -- - G20 leaders and ministers sat down to hammer out new rules for world financial markets today after a warning from France and Germany that a London summit should declare an end to the unfettered capitalism that has plunged the global economy into recession.

Opening a plenary session at the G20 summit in Docklands, Gordon Brown told the assembled heads of state and government and their finance ministers that the draft communique already on the table "reflects a high degree of consensus between us".

In comments picked up by television cameras before journalists were ushered from the hall, the Prime Minister said that the meeting should focus on paragraphs 14 to 17 of the draft text - those dealing with "global financial institutions and global regulation".

In a classic show of brinksmanship, the leaders of France and Germany threatened last night to scupper the entire G20 deal - and months of work by Mr Brown and his team - unless the summit takes meaninfgul action to regulate financial markets more closely.

Negotiators worked through the night to agree an acceptable text for the draft communique, although diplomatic sources said that there were still five separate texts doing the rounds early this morning. Today's plenary session began approximately one hour late.

Among the rules on which the G20 leaders look likely to agree are that the large hedge funds blamed for market volatility should be submitted to international supervision for the first time. More controversially, the summit could well impose restrictions on the salaries of bankers to bring an end to the risk-based bonus culture.

The summit will also agree to beef up the International Monetary Fund - possibly tripling its war chest to $750 billion, although the exact figure was still to be agreed.

The summit is likely to include a pledge to deliver "the scale of sustained effort necessary to restore growth" without making any commitments beyond the estimated $2 trillion already being spent to stabilise banks, shore up demand and limit job losses.

After already scuppering the Prime Minister's original calls for the meeting to endorse a co-ordinated fiscal stimulus, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel said yesterday that they would refuse to sign any agreement that did not meet their "red lines", including the naming and shaming of tax havens.'
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