G20: World leaders gather around Europe's sickbed "from a Wall Street virus"

With a Greek economic crisis matched only by its internal political turmoil, leaders from the world's 20 leading nations scrambled yesterday (3 November) in Cannes to insulate themselves from the next most European vulnerable economy, Italy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the host of the G20 meeting, made no secret that the problems of the eurozone had taken centre stage at the summit, initially planned to identify solutions to boost the world economy.

With a scenario of Greek bankruptcy no longer seen as taboo, Italy became a prime concern at the summit.

In Cannes, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was urged to take urgent steps to reassure markets and slash its crippling debt mountain. The Italian leader was set to leave the summit early on Friday, facing mounting calls to quit and a rebellion within his own centre-right party.

For more: World leaders gather around Europe's sickbed | EurActiv

Europe debt action back on course after Greeks abandon vote - by Lesley Clark and Kevin G.Hall

Leaders of the world's most industrialized nations, gathered here for the annual G-20 summit, scrambled Thursday to rescue a European Union deal to restructure Greek debt and prevent a regional financial crisis from spreading and creating further global economic disruption.

President Barack Obama and his European Union counterparts held closed-door meetings looking for ways to salvage last week's marathon EU deal and get the world's economy back on the path of growth.


For more: Europe debt action back on course after Greeks abandon vote - KansasCity.com

Davos WEF 2011: Nouriel Roubini: G20 has become G-Zero - by Philip Aldrick

Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University, and Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the media group WPP, lamented a lack of joined-up global leadership, describing co-ordinated efforts to address trade imbalances, capital flows, water resources, immigration and climate change as “G Zero”.

“There is complete disagreement and disarray. That’s the sense of the G Zero,” Mr Roubini said, explaining the new buzzword at the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in the Swiss resort of Davos.

“There is no agreement on anything. We are in a world where there is no leadership,” he added.

For more: Davos WEF 2011: Nouriel Roubini: G20 has become G-Zero - Telegraph

Have the Immoral Actions of Central Bankers Precipitated the Decline of the West?

"There is accumulating evidence that the Washington - Wall Street moral hazard experiment has gone disastrously wrong, and that just like any other accidental discharge of a deadly virus, the moral hazard virus is now loose and swiftly propagating throughout society. By so blatantly colluding with Wall Street, Washington has lost all moral authority, and the people now have only one place to turn: themselves. 
 
An ethic of, "If they can do it, so can I," is spreading, as people realize that fabric of American society has been shredded and replaced by a free-for-all mentality whereby everyone must fend for oneself in order to survive. If this is so, it is a serious game changer for America. Evidence of the spread of moral hazard is noticeable everywhere. Despite government reports that the economy contracted only 1% last quarter and is now stabilizing, 13% of all home mortgages were either delinquent or in foreclosure in the second quarter, 2009, an all-time record. Credit card write-offs hover near 10%, also a record. Automobile, home equity and personal loan defaults are at or near record levels. Fiscal year 2009 federal personal tax receipts have declined 22% and corporate receipts have plunged by 57%, even though the economy has supposedly declined by only a fraction of that amount."

We have written that the current situation is analogous to the days of the Gutenberg press: Finally, people could read the Bible and see priestly untruth. Today, of course, the West's establishment religion is monetary. Think about it. Are we so wrong? The mainstream media prints the every utterance of the central banking class with breathless reverence. The miens of these bankers are often ascetic; they are portrayed as good family men, patriotic and responsible. They are priests with a vocabulary all their own - as incomprehensible, nearly, as Latin. Their expensive, bespoke, business suits are a uniform akin to investments. The gorgeous conference rooms in which they convene may be regarded as grave vestibules. Utterances, revealed in "minutes," have the resonance of commandments from on high. Regulators, media mavens and politicians are acolytes, expressing hosannas as they wish."

And so it begins. You have seen the essential immorality of the system. You have felt it deep in the gut, just the way they did once they began to read Bibles (courtesy of the Gutenberg press) 500 years ago and began realizing that the Roman Catholic Church was profoundly immoral - that its entire ethic (you can buy your way into heaven) was built on a kind of lie. Just as society is today. It's not just the culture of the West, or its promotions, or even its social organization that is finished. You CANNOT, as a society, witness a couple of guys pull a trillion out of their back pockets without feeling, well ... snookered. And after feeling snookered, something else begins to percolate. "Hey," you say, "wait a minute. I sit here with my debts and my job and my house in foreclosure and this guy - THIS GUY - throws around trillions? Wait a minute. WHEN DO I GET MINE!"

After all, the Reformation, ultimately, was a moral reaction. Human beings, among other things, live within various ethical environments. When these are shown to be false, there is trouble brewing. We've written this over and over, that the old financial order, based on central banking, is basically finished.

For more: Have the Immoral Actions of Central Bankers Precipitated the Decline of the West?

FT.com- France and Germany return to growth - by Gerrit Wiesmann

For the complete report from the FT.com click on this link

France and Germany return to growth - by Gerrit Wiesmann

Germany and France on Thursday delivered a boost to hopes that the eurozone is clawing its way back from recession as the region’s largest members said their economies grew in the second quarter after shrinking for a year. Robust consumer and public spending - buoyed by large government stimulus programmes - helped both economies grow 0.3 per cent in April, May and June, according to data released by both countries’ statistical offices.The gains raised hopes that eurozone second-quarter GDP, due to be released later,would outdo economists’ forecasts of a 0.5 per cent contraction after a 2.5 per cent plunge in the first three months of 2009.

Note EU-Digest

When we read today's enthusiastic and optimistic reports about the strengthening of economies around the world it might also be good to reflect on a Chinese poet who wrote: “Why is it that statistics put a calm smile on my face? Because, of statistics I can rearrange the stars in the skies above.” Or in plain English: "Beware of the spin doctors".

EU-Digest/China View: EU FMs to finalize plans for establishing co-op with U.S. - "November G20 meeting an exercise in futility - EU-Digest"

For the complete report from Xinhua click on this link

EU FMs to finalize plans for establishing co-op with U.S

Foreign ministers of the European Union members are to gather today, on the eve of the U.S. presidential elections, for an informal meeting to finalize their plans for establishing a balanced and closer cooperation with the United States. At the Informal Meeting of Foreign Ministers (Gymnich) in the southern France city of Avignon two months ago, the ministers had discussed how the EU could enhance political dialogue with the United States to carry more weight in the resolution of regional crises and to intensify transatlantic cooperation for dealing with major global challenges. Javier Solana, Secretary-General of the EU Council and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, together with Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Commissioner for External Relations, will attend the one-day meeting.

Note EU-Digest: "we can only hope the EU will look at their relationship with the US in a more objective way. As it stands now the US in dealing with the EU has gotten their way in most areas, including those on issues of security, privacy, and transportation. A recent agreement between the EU and the US has resulted in EU citizens privacy rights being compromised. One of the reason's for this lopsided relationship in favor of the US is that the US usually deals with each individual EU member state on a bi-lateral level instead of dealing with the EU as one body.

It also seems a futile and costly exercise for the EU to participate in the G20 conference later this month, presided over by a lame duck US government. A new US Administration, whichever candidate wins the presidential election will want to have their say in these deliberations. Even though the winner of that contest will be known at the time of the planned G20 meeting, there can only be one President of the US at a time, and that President will still be Mr. Bush. The new Administration will be in office on January 20 and it would make far more sense to to wait until after that date to hold the G20 meeting soon thereafter".