The second G-20 Summit, as the group of 20 heads of state has come to be known, was held on April 2nd of 2009 in London. The stated goal was to "start the process of reform so as to manage globalization as a force for good in the medium term." Only two of the 2009 participants are still leading their countries, they being Angela Merkel and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Dmitry Medvedev is now the prime minister of Russia with Vladimir Putin serving as president so in effect three of these leaders remain. Jose' Manuel Barroso represented the European Commission as its president but is now a non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International. Two of the twenty seats are occupied by the European Union...its Council and Commission, so there are actually twenty-one leaders seated among the main guests. Total guests include a number of what are called Permanent Guests. The heads of the UN, IMF and WTO would be three of those permanent guesst. So a photo of the recent 2017 Summit might show thirty-four people. One thing that we know for sure about these G-20 Summits is that we know little about what actually takes in the closed door meetings. The following is a post that I wrote two days after that 2009 Summit.
The real news is in what did not come out of the G-20 Summit in London. The United States went in bent on getting a stimulus agreement and after a couple of hours of meetings came out with no stimulus agreement but giving a lot of money and establishing an international board that can watch over us. Could this result be why Germany and France, so unhappy when the summit started, were all smiles today? Nicolas Sarkozy said "Never would we have thought to get as big an agreement." Angela Merkel called it an "almost historic compromise." Dmitry Medvedev called President Obama "My new Comrade" and said he is "totally different" than his predecessor.
According to the six point communique issued, not a whole lot came out of the meetings. So why is everyone so happy. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain, said it was "The day the world came together....the old Washington consensus is over." Oh, he also said that this was the beginning of the New World Order. It gets worse, in a ludicrous photo, President Obama is scene with a thumb up gesture while Silvio Berlusconi of Italy has his arms around Obama and Russian President Medvedev is waving and apparently cannot contain his glee. It seemed to me that our national news media was subdued, but not the international media. Not much in the press releases from the meetings seemed to make much sense to me so I have to wonder what happened behind closed doors that brought on the jubilation? Its time for the American people and the United States Congress to step up. Wolves are at the door.
The real news is in what did not come out of the G-20 Summit in London. The United States went in bent on getting a stimulus agreement and after a couple of hours of meetings came out with no stimulus agreement but giving a lot of money and establishing an international board that can watch over us. Could this result be why Germany and France, so unhappy when the summit started, were all smiles today? Nicolas Sarkozy said "Never would we have thought to get as big an agreement." Angela Merkel called it an "almost historic compromise." Dmitry Medvedev called President Obama "My new Comrade" and said he is "totally different" than his predecessor.
According to the six point communique issued, not a whole lot came out of the meetings. So why is everyone so happy. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain, said it was "The day the world came together....the old Washington consensus is over." Oh, he also said that this was the beginning of the New World Order. It gets worse, in a ludicrous photo, President Obama is scene with a thumb up gesture while Silvio Berlusconi of Italy has his arms around Obama and Russian President Medvedev is waving and apparently cannot contain his glee. It seemed to me that our national news media was subdued, but not the international media. Not much in the press releases from the meetings seemed to make much sense to me so I have to wonder what happened behind closed doors that brought on the jubilation? Its time for the American people and the United States Congress to step up. Wolves are at the door.
