Recession clouds on G20 summit

Here’s this weekend’s challenge: get twenty nations from diverse locations to speak with one voice. The man at the helm has two months left on his tenure, but Bush says now is not the time to rip up the playbook on global capitalism. But free market thinking is losing its advocates these days and the luster for a dramatic overhaul in the international financial system is growing louder. British Prime Minister has called for a new international agreement like the one 60 years ago that created the International Monetary Fund. The Chinese say they want to exert more influence on IMF and World Bank decisions, and this analyst, who’s calling for a grand bargain between traditional powers and emerging economies, says that may be necessary. But will the traditional powers give up some control over the IMF and World Bank for badly needed cash? The analyst says it’s very much in their interest because U.S. and European growth even in the short term is dependent on growth in the emerging economies. If European and U.S. leaders see things the same way, this weekend could be a watershed moment. This analyst says the alternative is China doing bilateral agreements with countries. In other words, China and oil-rich countries have the cash and they’re going to loan it out, so it makes sense for that to happen through our global institutions. But this analyst says giving China and other countries more of a say in those systems wouldn’t necessarily mean a huge overhaul in the financial systems across the globe.