They came. They saw. They ran away.
Last Saturday’s big global finance summit session was a far cry from the “veni, vidi, vici” of Julius Caesar. Rather than conquering the spreading problem of economic collapse, the leaders of the world’s 20 most powerful economies dithered, blathered, postured and then fled for home.
Still, a White House official who spoke for our stalwart leader, George W., insisted to reporters after the show that average Americans should “take comfort from what happened today.” Uh, why? Because the leaders showed that they understand “the depth of the economic problems,” he said. Wow, I certainly feel better now, don’t you?
But, wait — the so-called Group of 20 didn’t leave us totally empty-handed. While the Groupees didn’t actually do anything, they did issue a neat set of principles for all nations to ponder:
— Reinforce cooperation.
— Improve regulation.
— Promote market integrity.
— Reform international financial institutions.
— Strengthen transparency.
Double-wow! A high-school football coach couldn’t have done a better job of posting motivational platitudes on the locker room walls: Reinforce! Improve! Promote! Reform! Strengthen!
And if that doesn’t comfort you, be assured that the Group also agreed to meet again next spring.
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