This is not the Straight Talk Express.
Former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson isn’t impressed with the draft of the G20 communique, written ahead of this week’s summit meeting in London.
“On the real substance, the G20 punts on most of the big issues,” he writes at The Baseline Scenario, noting the language on monetary and fiscal policy is “completely vacuous.”
Additionally, the regulatory reform initiative amounts to nothing more than creating elaborate structures on top of the weak foundations that caused this economic mess.
“There is simply nothing substantive here that would not have happened without the G20 process; under current dire circumstances, window dressing is not a good reason to hold a summit,” Johnson says.
Meanwhile, Willen Buiter’s holding out hope for positive changes as he proposes a laundry-list of items that need to be discussed. But while he’s hopeful, he’s not expecting much to come from the meeting.
“The Group of Twenty (G20) meetings that start on April 2, ought to have started on April 1 instead,” he says. “That way, when nothing but hot air emanates from the Docklands venue, at least the organisers of the event will be able to claim it was all an April fool’s joke.”
