Showing posts with label G20 summit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label G20 summit. Show all posts

Friday, 3 April 2009

Smoke and Mirrors


The Telegraph's Iain Martin:

So this is how it ends. The bun-fight at the Excel draws to a close and we get to see the final communiqué. And it is, I'm afraid, pretty much a giant public relations con.


The PM is gravely announcing a $1trillion "stimulus" for the global economy. But it's not the kind of stimulus which Brown has been wandering the world demanding - ie a further co-ordinated boost, involving increased spending or tax cuts by the major economies, to get demand going.


Instead there is $1 trillion for funding the IMF and other related trade business.


It involves: $500 billion funding of increased funding for the IMF, $250 billion of increased drawing rights for the IMF and a new trade finance package amounting to $200 billion. Is this all new money? Don't be silly. Is it being spent now? No. Where's it coming from? All will become clear when the deal is picked apart in the coming days, like a Gordon Brown budget.

It's all very Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll couldn't have done better.


But there's no one to check

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