A Sane view of the G20

John Redwood MP has commented on Conservative Home's Platform, linked here, some quotes: The myth of the summit was that all the leaders needed to agree and to do the same thing. What we want is for the countries involved to do very different things, for their own crises are different. Germany, Japan and China need to borrow and spend more, to import more, and to save and export less. The US, Spain, Ireland and the UK need to do the opposite. They need to export and save more, and to borrow and import less.

Their solemn declaration that they will not pursue protectionist policies is unlikely to be followed in practice. Many countries are now trying to devalue their currencies to gain a competitive edge. Many countries are offering subsidy to their financial and their industrial sectors. Some are even looking at ways of buying home produced at the expense of imports and examining tariff and non tariff barriers to foreign goods and services.