Het Neoliberale Geloof 394

Financial crisis 'caused by white men with blue eyes'

With Brown at his side, Brazilian leader apportions blame for global
recession
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor

A British minister warned leaders of the world's biggest economies
yesterday that they must produce more than empty rhetoric at the crucial
G20 summit in London next week.

Lord Malloch-Brown, the plain-speaking Foreign Office minister who is
playing a key role in the negotiations ahead of the meeting, said: "We
can't again engage in meaningless, empty commitments which don't survive
the flight home." Leaders risked fuelling public dissent if they did not
agree on action to tackle the recession, with dire consequences for the
poorest nations.

But he said Thursday's summit may not have an immediate impact. "The global
economy is going to go on descending on 3 April, the massive destruction of
wealth that is going on is not going to be stopped by any leaders'
communique. Stock markets may be arrested and turned around but we are in
for a very tough 2009 under any circumstances ˆ including a successful
G20 summit."

In Brazil, Gordon Brown continued his pre-summit tour but there was
embarrassment when his host, President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, said the
financial crisis was caused by "white people with blue eyes". He told a
joint press conference with Mr Brown that he had never met a black banker.

"This is a crisis that was caused by people, white with blue eyes. And
before the crisis they looked as if they knew everything about economics,"
he said. "Once again the great part of the poor in the world that were
still not yet [getting] their share of development that was caused by
globalisation, they were the first ones to suffer.'
Lees verder: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/financial-crisis-caused-by-

white-men-with-blue-eyes-1655354.html