Was the G20 summit a success?

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G20 leaders have agreed to tackle the global financial crisis with measures worth $1 trillion (£681bn). What's your reaction?

(Feed provided by BBC News | Have your Say (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/talking_point/default.stm))

[Bitter Ashes]

I'm not sure I totaly understand what they agreed to. Does this mean they're agreeing on bailouts on the banks internationally? :/

[Yazman]

Not really. All they really did was allocate money to the IMF... I haven't read of any real changes to the financial system at all beyond the IMF overdraft facility using Special Drawing Rights instead of US$

[Bitter Ashes]

It'll be intresting to see how well the media can spin this all to seem significant I suppose.

[Yazman]

It'll be intresting to see how well the media can spin this all to seem significant I suppose.

I would like to know where these funds are coming from. As they are being allocated to the IMF they will most likely be used for "national bailouts."

I would be willing to bet that a majority of this money is coming from the United States. I am also somewhat surprised that the talk of a "world reserve bank" coupled with a global reserve currency of some sort never actually developed, particularly as a few of the G20 nations were pushing it pretty strongly before the meeting occurred. I guess it was just hot air.

[ZeroNowhere]

G20 summit has solved the world's problems (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/02/g20-summit-gordon-brown-hails-deal)! Yay!:lol:
Whoo! :D
And the dilemma gets even deeper. Would you rather the crisis end, or have millions of workers have their standards of living lowered, though with a possibility of them becoming socialist... AND Gordon Brown looking like an idiot?

[Bitter Ashes]

G20 summit has solved the world's problems (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/02/g20-summit-gordon-brown-hails-deal)! Yay!:lol:
Bleh. The rest of the universe gets Flash Gordon and we get Gordon Brown.

[MikeSC]

Can't help but feel it's been engineered to look like a massive success. This is all stuff we knew they were gonna do anyway.

[Dimentio]

G20 leaders have agreed to tackle the global financial crisis with measures worth $1 trillion (£681bn). What's your reaction?

(Feed provided by BBC News | Have your Say (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/talking_point/default.stm))

Why can we not give Newsbot negative rep?

[brigadista]

Not really. All they really did was allocate money to the IMF... I haven't read of any real changes to the financial system at all beyond the IMF overdraft facility using Special Drawing Rights instead of US$

to bail out Ireland and Greece to name 2 euro countries because there is a prohibition on euro countries approaching europe for financial aid so they can now apply to the IMF

[RebelDog]

Was the G20 summit a success?For them it was a success. They left London alive when many Londoners should have taken the opportunity to string such anti-social bastards up. I mean they came to the city and never had the decency to pay their own way, clear up their mess or even take the time to meet the locals. What wankers, good riddance!

[JimmyJazz]

Not really. All they really did was allocate money to the IMF... I haven't read of any real changes to the financial system at all beyond the IMF overdraft facility using Special Drawing Rights instead of US$
to bail out Ireland and Greece to name 2 euro countries because there is a prohibition on euro countries approaching europe for financial aid so they can now apply to the IMF

This is what I heard on the radio too: the IMF has basically gotten a sum so big that it amounts to a new lease on life, but it will be dispensed to middle income countries like Poland (and apparently Ireland and Greece). Although, Mexico has already applied for a loan and I'm not sure if they are "middle income" or comparable to those other three. Pretty sure they are closer to a traditional recipient of IMF $.

[brigadista]

This is what I heard on the radio too: the IMF has basically gotten a sum so big that it amounts to a new lease on life, but it will be dispensed to middle income countries like Poland (and apparently Ireland and Greece). Although, Mexico has already applied for a loan and I'm not sure if they are "middle income" or comparable to those other three. Pretty sure they are closer to a traditional recipient of IMF $.


IMF money to developing nations always comes with conditions this is how the IMF controls the politics in those countries

[an apple]

I'm really getting the feeling that these billions are falling into a black hole.


Originally Posted by brigadista
IMF money to developing nations always comes with conditions this is how the IMF controls the politics in those countries

This is the absolute truth. The IMF is very selective when it comes to aid.

A number of countries have been denied aid for various reasons:

Kenya
Sierra Leone
Zimbabwe
Sri Lanka

And when the loan gets there, god knows what its used for:

BBC NEWS 22 July 2008

IMF funding 'fuelling TB deaths'

"Strict conditions on international loans have been blamed for thousands of extra tuberculosis deaths in eastern Europe, and former Soviet republics.

Analysts from Cambridge and Yale universities said they had led to less being spent on healthcare.

As a result TB in countries with International Monetary Fund loans rose sharply, they claimed.

A UK TB charity backed the Public Library of Science study findings - but the IMF firmly rejected them.

The resurgence of TB in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has caused widespread concern, particularly as it has coincided with an increase in the number of drug-resistant cases.

The IMF is an international organisation which aims to oversee the global financial system, and reduce instability by offering financial packages to governments.

In recent years, it has offered assistance to 21 countries in the region, in the form of loans offered in exchange for the meeting of strict economic targets.

The researchers claimed it was efforts to meet these targets that was undermining the fight against TB by drawing funding away from public health.

They looked at the timing of rises in the TB rate, and compared them with the timing of IMF intervention."

[JimmyJazz]

IMF money to developing nations always comes with conditions this is how the IMF controls the politics in those countries

Right, which is why it was significant that the money they're getting now is supposedly destined for somewhat richer/more developed nations than they usually loan to, like Ireland/Greece/Poland.

But if Mexico's on the list, then it might be more of the same as usual after all.

[Yazman]

Not to mention that the new loan structure will strip poorer countries of their economic sovereignty. Loans will be relative to the size of the IMF and not the world economy, and if you're not contributing a significant enough amount to the IMF your loan will need to be "represented" by a country that does contribute a significant enough amount. The money never enters your national account either and ends up being managed directly by the "representing" nation.

[Killfacer]

G20 leaders have agreed to tackle the global financial crisis with measures worth $1 trillion (£681bn). What's your reaction?

(Feed provided by BBC News | Have your Say (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/talking_point/default.stm))

Robot freak

To answer the question posed by this android, no. We're all fucked and the worlds going to collapse into financial ruin for a couple of years.

[Cumannach]

If they really are taking the opportunity of the global recession to unleash the IMF in the first world aswell, then all I can say is, the prospects for class war are very good.