this is short and to the point.
Quote:
The G20: Who is there and how desperate are they?
* Ed Pilkington
* guardian.co.uk, Saturday November 15 2008 00.01 GMT
* The Guardian, Saturday November 15 2008
* larger | smaller
* Article history
Argentina - $150bn public debt
Attending: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, president
Argentina last month decided to nationalise its 10 largest private pension funds, taking $30bn of assets into public ownership. Shares then lost a fifth of their value in two days. Argentina defaulted on its debts in 2001 and investors fear it may do so again.
Desperation rating: Five stars
Australia - $141bn public debt
Kevin Rudd, prime minister
Australia has eliminated net public debt but runs a gross one of about 15% of GDP. Tough regulation meant its banks had little exposure to the US subprime mortgage market but the fall in commodity prices is hurting. Australia could face recession next year.
Desperation rating: Three stars
Brazil - $590bn public debt
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, president
Brazil's economy is growing at 5% this year but is expected to slow sharply next year. Central bank is making credit available to help firms boost sales and it has intervened in the market to meet demand for the US dollar.
Desperation rating: Three stars
Canada - $900bn public debt
Stephen Harper, prime minister
The Bank of Canada warned that growth would hit zero next year. Weaker oil prices and lower US demand are hurting Canada. Last month, it guaranteed bank lending in a move that could leave the taxpayer liable for up to US$175bn.
Desperation rating: Four stars
China - $580bn public debt
Hu Jintao, president
China is taking a big spending $586bn approach as industrial growth hits a seven-year low. As holder of the world's largest foreign exchange reserves ($1,900bn) China is under pressure to aid global finances but stands to be the biggest winner from the crisis.
Desperation rating: Three stars
France - $1.63tr public debt
Nicolas Sarkozy, president
The French economy grew by 0.1% between July and September but recession may only be temporarily avoided. Paris has made a €320bn guarantee for bank lending and a $40bn fund to recapitalise banks. Sarkozy has announced the creation of a fund to protect French companies from foreign "predators".
Desperation rating: Four stars
Germany - $2.07tr public debt
Angela Merkel, chancellor
Europe's largest economy officially entered recession this week after GDP shrank by 0.5%, the second quarter of decline. Germany has seen exports plunge. It is providing €400bn in guarantees for bank lending, plus a further €100bn to recapitalise its banks.
Desperation rating: Four stars
India - $637bn public debt
Manmohan Singh, prime minister
India is being tipped as a key player in helping bolster the global economy. Growth is expected to be 7.5% this year, down from 9% and disguising the slowdown in the industrial sector. Along with China, a big gainer.
Desperation rating: One star
Indonesia - $147bn public debt
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president
Jakarta unveiled an emergency package last month in response to increasing pressure on its currency and stock market - including export tax cuts and ordering state-owned companies to repatriate foreign currency earnings.
Desperation rating: Two stars
Italy - $2.19tr public debt
Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister
The economy has contracted for a second quarter, by a worse than expected 0.5%. It is Italy's fourth recession in seven years. The government has set aside up to €40bn to recapitalise its banks and created a €650m fund to guarantee lending to companies.
Desperation rating: Five stars
Japan - $7.45tr public debt
Taro Aso, prime minister
The world's second biggest economy may be on the brink of recession. Despite this, Japan is prepared to take a leading role in helping get the global economy going, standing ready to offer $100bn in loans.
Desperation rating: Three stars
Mexico - $203bn public debt
Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa, president
The government is increasing spending by more than 13% to $231bn next year in a bid to boost the economy. The slump in the oil price hurt Mexico as oil revenues finance around 40% of its spending. The US slump has also cut the amount expatriate Mexicans send home.
Desperation rating: Four stars
Russia - $76bn public debt
Dmitry Medvedev, president
Russia has pledged a $200bn package for the economy and financial markets while the central bank has raised key interest rates to try to halt capital flight. Share prices have slumped while the rouble has been under heavy pressure. Russia has financial firepower but a fall in commodity prices hurts.
Desperation rating: Four stars
Saudi Arabia - $91bn public debt
King Abdullah
Its stock market is down 40% this year and the government has made $40bn available to its banks. However, the focus has been on Saudi pumping money into the IMF so that it can in turn bail out struggling countries.
Desperation rating: Three stars
South Africa - $88bn public debt
Petrus Kgalema Motlanthe, president
Its financial system is largely unscathed and could use its stronger bargaining position to press for more African voices in international forums such as the IMF. A potential gainer.
Desperation rating: Two stars
South Korea - $269bn public debt
Lee Myung-bak, president
No bank nationalisations but the government said yesterday it was ready to provide liquidity to the sector amid fears of mounting bad debts and slowing growth. Wobbling.
Desperation rating: Three stars
Turkey - $257bn public debt
Tayyip Recep Erdogan, prime minister
Turkey's debt was downgraded by credit rating agencies this week. It might need further IMF cash. Its currency lost a third of its value against the dollar last month alone.
Desperation rating: Four stars
UK - $1.2tr public debt
Gordon Brown, prime minister
Amid bank bail-outs and interest rate cuts the country sits on the brink of recession. The FTSE has lost around 40% since last summer. Desperation rating: Five stars
US - $8.4tr public debt
George Bush, president
The origin of the subprime crisis. Washington has drawn up a $700bn bail-out plan for the nation's banks, including a fund to buy toxic assets. Needs a solution fast.
Desperation rating: Five stars
EU
The eurozone is now officially in recession. The economy of the 15 countries using the euro shrank by 0.2% between July and September compared with the previous quarter.
Desperation rating: Four stars
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The G20: Who is there and how desperate are they? | Business | The Guardian
and here's a general assessment of the lay of the land on this saturday morning.
Doubts raised over prospects of success for 'hasty summit' | Business | The Guardian
this will probably double post---there's something squirrely going on with my browser or computer can't tell which exactly....
in the left responses to the election thread, there was a piece by mike davis.
it's basic argument is that the financial crisis is also, and perhaps just as importantly, an ideological crisis. ideology in this sense refers to the framing assumptions that enable coherent assessments of a situation and which enables coherence of responses. davis argues, in different terms, that because of the latter, the former is not even being recognized for what it is, like the grand canyon was not recognized by the folk who first saw it.
this seems most characteristic of the bush administration at the moment.
the implications of this are huge, both in terms of political arrangement (the political arrangement that shapes trans-national economic activity) and in specific policy terms.
so if my read on the manoevering just prior to the meeting is correct, the bush administration is basically punting--they have little choice, being both lame ducks and trapped in a situation that pulverizes their own neoliberal worldview (and apparently lacking the flexibility to move outside that worldview, they simply perform the effects of the problem--they can't get in front of something they can't really process).
so they're playing for time, hoping to launch something co-ordinated and short-term, and there'll be another meeting.
this puts enormous pressure on obama. the situation is such that the american position in the trans-national system is at stake. the way to maintain something of that position--and it's important because despite the legion problems with the domestic economy in terms of system coherence, what enables it to function at all is tied to the american position in the other arrangement----is to have a systematic plan ready to be advanced--sarkosy for example is acting as if the french already have one--so the game is on.
depending on which stop-gap measures are implemented, there will be a bit of time before things unravel maybe---it looks like the gamble is to prop shit up until, say, february. that's not alot of time.
meanwhile, the auto industry is in terrible condition and will probably be bailed out somehow or another. even this is generating new and improved versions of the ideological crisis--for economic conservatives, this removes any consequence to bad management decisions---so opens the door for every industry group to fuck up and some to washington and say "bail me out."
but that's already happening--witness the chaos in the "troubled assets relief fund" which is now not being used to relieve troubled assets--it's more a huge pool of money surrounded by a soup kitchen that's pouring it into the proffered cups of corporate lobby groups.
it really is insane, what's happening in the states. and the g-20 meeting will be a punt. so we collectively, since we live in this situation regardless of what we think of it, have to hope that the stop-gap measures work, and that something about making them at the trans-national level will generate a degree of coherence that the present administration is self-evidently not able to produce itself.