Eideard

Leave it up to Fibber McGee and Molly
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President Hu Jintao of China will arrive in Cannes, France, this week pondering a plea from Europe for tens of billions of dollars to help the continent get out of its debt crisis. And President Obama will arrive with a smile, some hearty handshakes, and his own plea: that Greece get its act together and that Europe fix its economic ills, which he has called one of the biggest drags on the United States’ own ailing economy…

The last few months may well end up being an inflection point, in which the United States, though easily still the world’s leading power, no longer has quite the responsibility or the burden it once did. The pattern has been evident in the Arab Spring, with the American military playing mostly a supporting role in Libya, and now in the European financial crisis, with Asian money coming to aid the Europeans…A significant difference in policy between Obama and traditional Cold Warriors in both of the TweedleDeeDum parties.

In many ways, the situation is a natural evolution of the campaign promises made by Mr. Obama in 2008, when he vowed to turn away from the Bush administration’s more unilateral approach.

As president, Mr. Obama is now overseeing the withdrawal of all troops from Iraq and has emphasized multilateral diplomacy in all its messy forms. He refused to consider American intervention in Libya until the United Nations approved a resolution supporting it, and then he stepped back and allowed France and Britain to take the lead though American military help remained essential…We only have about 174 countries to go to withdraw from the rest of our foreign military bases.

Mr. Obama’s backers say that he is simply acknowledging reality and developing a clear-eyed strategy for what the United States can and cannot do and that he ultimately may prove right in diagnosing Europe’s economic problems and its need to take difficult steps to fix them…

Arriving in Cannes on Thursday, Mr. Obama will be trying to balance providing that leadership while not taking on any of the additional burden — particularly financial — that such leadership often requires…

But for all the acceptance that the United States will no longer be the world’s policeman and financier, the emerging strategy carries risks…

The American military remains the world’s most formidable, and the most likely to be called on to back American allies like Israel, Japan and South Korea.

Of course, no one expects South Korea or Japan to invade one of their neighbors – and start a war.

Chief William Blair provided answers Friday afternoon about Toronto Police’s $122-million policing budget for the upcoming G20 summit, as well as the police force’s plan for limiting the use of “sound cannons” during the event.

At a special meeting of the Toronto Police Services Board, Chief Blair told board members that $82-million will be spent on salaries for police officers. This includes 3,500 Toronto Police officers, 1,600 police officers from across the country, and 900 Toronto Police civilian employees.

The remaining $40-million will be spent on additional costs such as equipment, vehicles, housing for non-Toronto Police officers, and clothing.

Chief Blair emphasized that the full $122-million will be paid for by the federal government, and will not come out of Toronto Police Service’s budget.

OK. I was afraid there might be some excess.

Like for popsicles.

Security barriers begin to go up – don’t fall in the water!

Canada’s government has been criticised for spending huge sums to host G8 and G20 summits at the end of June, including two million dollars on a fake lake inside the media centre.

The artificial lake will reportedly include canoes, trees, lounge chairs and a fake dock.

It is being built in downtown Toronto to showcase the site of the June 25-26 G8 summit in Huntsville, 140 miles north of Toronto, which is to be accessible to only a small pool of journalists…

Liberal and New Democrat MPs ridiculed the Conservative government in the House for spending lavishly on the lake, as well as earmarking nearly one billion dollars for summit security.

“We have a government here that has to create an artificial lake when Canada has more lakes than just about any other country in the world,” said NDP leader Jack Layton…

Liberal MP Mark Holland said: “Did anyone in government not think that two million dollars (on a) fake lake to host a 72-hour meeting on fiscal restraint was a bad idea?”

Government flunkies say they need an appropriate backdrop for the media of the world. I’d suggest the nearest politician’s hospitality suite.

World’s leading bankers at the World Economic Forum in Davos have decided to support a new insurance levy on financial institutions to fund a bailout in future.

Led by Deutsche Bank, most major banks have agreed to back the idea, which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has described as “practical”. The levy would go into a fund to rescue banks in financial distress, instead of using taxpayers’ money for the purpose…

US President Barack Obama had earlier revealed plans to force banks to pay into a pool fund to provide compensation for a failing financial institution.

David Cameron and Chancellor Darling have both backed the plan.

The levy is among a number of options outlined by the IMF, which will be presented to G20 ministers in April.

So, we get a few sentences of agreement, right now. The details will be presented to the G20 in a couple of months when we’ll have a clearer picture, the financial institutions in question will have a finished agreement to vote up or down.

In fact, if the Republican flunkey-monkeys in Congress hadn’t killed the Glass-Steagall bill in 1999 – and the matching range of oversight regulations – we might not have fallen into this killer recession.

“Big wheel keeps on turning, Proud Mary keeps on burning…”
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

The Group of 20 is set to become the premier coordinating body on global economic issues, reflecting a new world economic order in which emerging market countries like China are much more relevant, according to a draft communique.

Leaders of the G20 developed and developing nations also agreed to make the International Monetary Fund more representative by increasing the voting power of countries that have long been under-represented in the world financial body, said the draft G20 communique obtained by Reuters…

Following are some of the implications of the decisions:

* By making the G20 the new global economic coordinator, countries are committing to maintaining cooperation even after the global financial upheaval and recession recede. The G20 was upgraded from a ministerial to a leaders-level forum only last year as the crisis deepened…

* Adopting the G20 as the new economic steering committee raises questions over the whether or not the Group of Eight, which makes up the world’s industrial countries, will eventually be faded out. Diplomats said the G8 would continue to function but would focus on non-economic issues…

* The shift of at least 5 percentage points in voting power is the largest increase ever seen in the IMF’s voting structure and is likely to see China overtake old European powers Britain and France which have long resisted the move.

* The G20 also agreed the head of the IMF should be selected based on qualifications and not nationality, according to the draft communique obtained by Reuters. The decision is significant because the head of the IMF has always been a European, while the president of the World Bank has always been an American.

That last change should be enough to piss off neocon nutballs for a decade.

The family of Ian Tomlinson face a three-year wait for an inquest into his death, according to legal experts, who say that pressures on the coroners’ system are “frustrating the grieving process” for victims’ relatives.

The claim is likely to dismay critics of the police, who have expressed concerns about how Tomlinson’s death is being investigated. According to the first post-mortem examination, Tomlinson, a 47-year-old homeless newspaper vendor with a drink problem, died after suffering a heart attack while caught up in last week’s G20 protests.

Video footage appears to show a riot policeman hitting Tomlinson with a baton and shoving him to the ground. There are also claims that Tomlinson may have been bitten by a police dog, and that he came into contact with the police on several occasions before the alleged assault was captured on video. There are concerns that the alleged assault – which took place as Tomlinson was trying to get back to his hostel – may have contributed to his heart attack. A second post-mortem was carried out on Thursday.

The footage has raised questions about police tactics for dealing with protesters, and in particular the strategy called “kettling”, which involves herding protesters behind cordons…

Legal experts said last night that a full independent inquest is unlikely to take place for years. “From our experience of deaths involving police contact, delays of two to three years are not uncommon,” said Deborah Coles, director of Inquest, the organisation that represents the families of people who die in custody.

I am never hopeful that any government body can be moved beyond political motives to accomplish a damned thing. That doesn’t mean they can’t be pushed into doing the just and honorable thing. Just that pushing is required.

Stalling and stonewalling is as common this side of the pond; so, it’s nothing new to our American and Canadian readers. Doesn’t make it any less contemptible.

Banker chic can be described in so many ways: conservative, unimaginative, boring and, next week, downright dangerous. On Tuesday, the mere act of wearing a plain grey suit – be it from Savile Row or Reiss – anywhere within the confines of the London EC1-EC4 postcodes, will apparently be as provocative as donning a flamboyant matador’s costume in a bullring, at least in the eyes of a G20 protester. So think the Metropolitan police, who have advised City workers to dress down on Tuesday and Wednesday to avoid being identified as bankers.

This is likely to present a sartorial challenge to those whose wardrobe skills usually involve deciding which Sketchley’s plastic wrapping to remove. And it is a conundrum that the police seem to be grossly unqualified in giving advice on. So far, City workers have simply been told to avoid suits and dress down in chinos and loafers. That’s it. No word on what to do about the top half, complete silence on accessories, no styling diktats whatsoever.

Not only is the advice incomplete, it is, as anyone who has ever given the glossy pages of Tatler a cursory flick knows, possibly the worst wardrobe advice ever. Chinos and loafers simply reek of money and poshness. Bankers who choose this option might as well wear a T-shirt with a slogan that reads “I spent my bonus on a yacht”. Consider the poster boy for this look: Prince Harry, regularly spotted leaving any given Kensington nightclub wearing beige chinos and brown Sebago loafers – hardly the best disguise with which to fool those anti-capitalist protesters, is it?

Even though I have no personal acquaintance with most of the brands Imogen references, I get the point. RTFA for her suggestions for women bankers, as well.

All of it humorous, though the premise that G20 protestors will all behave like football hooligans is a bit of a stretch. Even dull-normal anarchists who may come from the same gene pool cul-de-sac as, say, the dolts who occasionally embarrass Swansea supporters – generally haven’t the courage to attack much of anything much more likely to retaliate than a shop window.

Daylife/Getty Images

A G20 summit next week will test leading countries’ appetite to fight climate change after spending trillions bailing out banks and shoring up the global economy…

“We need a very clear signal that the G20 views this as broader than fixing a financial crisis,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Program.

“When you see $100 billion going into rescuing one or two companies you have to ask yourself is this the most rational way of dealing with a (climate) threat that will have far greater economic consequences and human suffering…”

G20 powers could confirm next Thursday their commitment to forge a new climate treaty in Copenhagen, and urge spending wherever possible of a $2 trillion-3 trillion global stimulus on “green” causes, analysts say…

Applying environmental conditions to stimulus spending may also pare state aid and protectionism fears. But the fight against recession inevitably means that the climate cash left will have to lever private sector money.

Governments could get more for their buck by guaranteeing private sector loans, or under-writing “green bonds” where pension and insurance funds invested in clean energy…

“(Making) government spending work very, very hard in terms of leveraging private capital… that fits very much with the Copenhagen agenda,” HSBC analyst Nick Robins said.

It all begins to look like the world’s largest PR campaign and balancing act.

Though – I think – it is possible to use the Keynesian amendments to government support dependent upon Green conditions. I think we can count on that from the Obama delegation and at least lip service from Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel. The latter two are sneaking up on elections and look ready to topple over to the Right at the drop of a single molecule of fossil fuel.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures

More than 20 of the world’s leaders gathered at the White House last night at the start of a two-day emergency summit on the global financial crisis that will continue in five hours of policy discussions.

But even as participants began to assemble in what is the largest collection of presidents and prime ministers in almost a decade, doubts were raised that it would achieve anything beyond immediate moves to stimulate the world economy and an agreement to meet again…

The fact that the gathering brings together representatives of about 85% of the world’s economy has prompted inevitable comparisons to the 1944 Bretton Woods meeting when 44 countries gathered in New Hampshire to devise the postwar international monetary system. But most analysts believe that “Bretton Woods II” will resemble its predecessor only in the scale of the crisis…

The summit was convened at the request of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, backed by Gordon Brown, and extended by George Bush beyond the usual parameters of the G8 to include a much wider spectrum in recognition of the global nature of the economic crisis.

Expectations are low partly as a result of the vacuum at the summit’s centre, a product of the lame duck nature of US government. Barack Obama, the president-elect, will be notable by his absence, though he sent two envoys.

The economic world needs strong, competent, all-encompassing leadership. Narrow politics – even with global phrase-mongering from Sarkozy and Brown – does not a consensus make. The absence of Obama has already made this nothing more than the largest collection of photo ops in decades.