Obama wants G20 to rethink global economy

[Joanne98]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON/BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday he would push world leaders this week for a reshaping of the global economy in response to the deepest financial crisis in decades.

In Europe, officials kept up pressure for a deal to curb bankers' pay and bonuses at a two-day summit of leaders from the Group of 20 countries, which begins on Thursday.

The summit will be held in the former steelmaking center of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, marking the third time in less than a year that leaders of countries accounting for about 85 percent of the world economy will have met to coordinate their responses to the crisis.

The United States is proposing a broad new economic framework that it hopes the G20 will adopt, according to a letter by a top White House adviser.

Obama said the U.S. economy was recovering, even if unemployment remained high, and now was the time to rebalance the global economy after decades of U.S. over-consumption.

"We can't go back to the era where the Chinese or the Germans or other countries just are selling everything to us, we're taking out a bunch of credit card debt or home equity loans, but we're not selling anything to them," Obama said in an interview with CNN television


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE58G34Z20090921

[dipsydoodle]

1. We'll at least he's highlighted

one of the main underlying causes of the financial crisis - those who refinanced their homes in order to buy goods even if they were imported.

[sudopod]

2. Well at least he's highlighted

one of the main underlying causes of the financial crisis - bankers taking outrageous risks with other peoples' money in order to cash in on equally outrageous bonuses.

[dipsydoodle]

3. That too.

.

[FreakinDJ]

4. Boy this is going to piss off the Chinese

We own you. we own you

[rpannier]

5. But on the other end the Chinese would like to unload some of the debt they own

THey can't/won't just dump it as some people here claim because the free-fall of the dollar would make what they are trying to sell worth much less than what they bought it for.

[FreakinDJ]

10. America can't repay it's debt without a manufacturing economy

and manufacturing Bad Loans wasn't such a good idea after all

[rpannier]

11. Agreed

But the Chinese have to find a way to lessen the amount of debt they own without causing the value of the dollar to drop.
That is done over a several year span of time.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Will he demand that other nations respect the rights

of Health Insurance Companies to profit? Rethink the global economy, but we can not rethink our health care system?

[Vidar]

9. Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

[FarCenter]

7. Don't forget the $25 billion / month trade deficit in crude oil

It's not all Chinese crap that we're buying.

[fasttense]

8. This is a contradiction.

"Obama said the U.S. economy was recovering, even if unemployment remained high."

If unemployment is high how can there be a recovery?

If we are recovering, why is unemployment high?