G20: the way ahead ignores unresolved issues
David Blackburn 11:46am
Home of golf and full of five star hotels, St. Andrews is a lovely spot for a weekend shindig, so it’s no surprise that the G20 have convened there for their latest navel-gaze.
This meeting was supposed to be the preserve of finance ministers, but you can’t keep a statesman down. Gordon Brown delivered an impromptu lecture on 'the way ahead' to ministers who have, by some fluke obviously, stewarded a return to growth in their respective countries. Brown is adamant that curbing stimulus packages and inaugurating exit strategies be co-ordinated globally. He spoke of the need to protect taxpayers’ investments with what he called a ‘social contract’. He cited a financial compensation scheme to cover losses of failing investment banks, a tax on all financial transactions, and the perpetual claim that bonuses must be curtailed, as possible solutions - welcome to taxpayers, but could these suggestions, especially the tax option, work in practice or be adopted globally?
The rest of Brown’s speech veered towards his favoured clichés and beloved tractor statistics – stabilised banks, depression averted, saviour of the world (though he’s made that post more pluralistic in recent weeks) and the need to guard against rising commodity prices. The problem is that whilst the G20 pontificate about the future, the fundamental causes of financial collapse remain unresolved. The banks are not performing their essential task; credit, and thus the rest of the economy, is paralysed. A social contract between banks and the public should be confined to the bank providing credit and the public repaying loans.
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Watt Tyler
November 7th, 2009 12:10pm Report this comment"...but you can’t keep a statesman down. Gordon Brown delivered an impromptu lecture..."
At least you didn't write "you can't keep a good statesman down."
Is anyone listening to this repulsive turd. Yesterday he delivers a lecture to the Afghans about their culture of corruption. What Chutzpah!
Today he is cooking up a cunning scheme and presenting it as his doing a favour for the British Tax payer. What a f**king a-hole.
Yes, it was impromptu because he found out that the cameras were there. But I don't think it was for the benefit of voters in the next election for the EUSSR provincial assembly of Britain. He is looking for a cushy number at an NGO. Some of those dullards made him Statesman of the Year.
Rainer Unsinn
November 7th, 2009 1:09pm Report this commentGordon Brown begging for the rest of the world to give up their progress out of trouble and help him out.
Frank P
November 7th, 2009 2:06pm Report this commentTitle for above photo-portrait
Bastard Bureaucrats Beneath Bunting
... and contempt.
Frank P
November 7th, 2009 2:33pm Report this commentIs there any chance that the commentary count of the initial post could relate to the actual number of comments on a post? It helps to know whether there has been any traffic since the last visit - saving time for readers. Does somebody have to update it? Cannot it be automatic?
JohnAnt
November 7th, 2009 2:41pm Report this commentAh yes, and those taxes on 'every financial transaction' will be paid by just whom, in the final analysis?
Yup, you got it.
And the money collected will sit in the government's piggy-bank waiting for an 'emergency', will it?
No, I don't think so.
robert
November 7th, 2009 3:20pm Report this commentFinancial transaction tax: The banks will either be exempt, find a loophole around it, pass the increased tax cost of their transactions onto the people, or all three. The banks won't pay anything, will even find a way to make more profit by using the increased cost of their transactions as an excuse to raise the fees we pay higher than the cost of the transaction tax they pay. Taxpayers bailed out the banks with the initial hundreds of billions, now we are expected to pay hundreds of billions more with this new tax-that the banks are said to pay-for the initial bail-out that we have already paid for, so we pay twice. And the various governments have the nerve to say this new tax will be paid by the banks, not even one word on how the rest of us will have to pay. Disgusting.
TomTom
November 7th, 2009 3:56pm Report this commentWhy don't you comment on the "Doom Loop" speech given by the Bank of England Division Head who noted that the failure of the G20 to deal with banks will lead to repeated cycles of instability locking State and Financial System into a Doom-Loop ?
Peter M.
November 7th, 2009 4:43pm Report this commentBog off GB, somehow I remember you implying this last spring about cutting down on taxhavens, the UK is the fourth on the list, so what have you done about it?
TomTom
November 7th, 2009 4:50pm Report this commentAndy Haldane of Bank of England Financial Stability Unit made a far more vital contribution to the G20 Meeting than the "Darien-Scheme-Revisited-Bungler-Brown" but only the Telegraph seems to mention it
logdon
November 7th, 2009 5:21pm Report this commentHe never misses an opportunity to tell us how wonderful he is, does he?
What an arrogant arsehole?
When they remake Psycho for the umpteenth time he'll be Norman Bates, hopefully with slotmouth Chezza as Janet Leigh.
john
November 7th, 2009 5:51pm Report this commentAnd, of course, every BBC news bulletin begins with: "Gordon Brown said today..."
Listen to those radio news headlines. Invariably they begin with "Gordon Brown..."
Very sly. Very effective. Call it name placement or subliminal advertising, the BBC are blatantly biased towards New Labour.
NickW
November 8th, 2009 2:45pm Report this commentCommodities are not rising in value.
The value of money is falling.
Global inflation is taking place.
2trueblue
November 8th, 2009 11:25pm Report this commentJohn, yes it is called product placement! They have spent 12yrs turning the BBC into the Blair/Brown Broadcasting Corporation. I want my lisence money back.
Brown has been gret at telling us how great he is.....no one else does.
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