Thursday, April 2, 2009

Can't We All Just Get Along? Yes... Sort of.

G-20, Meeting, RegulationThis week United States President Barack Obama is in Europe for the G-20 Conference and meetings with world leaders. The G-20 Conference is a meeting of the 20 wealthiest nations to discuss global economic policy. (Image: Huffington Post) The weeks started out with a stark division between rough alliances headed by the United States with the U.K. and France with Germany. The French President was skeptical that Obama would be open to regulations and had pre-emptively threatened to leave the meetings because of this suspicion.

However, this is where it differs from the petty politics of the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament -- they ended up getting along. In fact, Obama readily admitted that America was a major factor in the downturn. Four major decisions came out of this meeting:

  • A $1 Trillion global investment in the World Bank
  • New crackdowns on Tax Haven areas
  • Hedge fund regulations
  • And, a global economic oversight body to spot problems
These decisions tackle the financial situation on almost all fronts. The partisan politician of the federal U.S. Congress and similar bodies around the world could learn a lot from the G-20 meeting. If the political parties were as open to diplomacy as the leaders at this global summit, there would be a lot more being done that helps everyone.

It's time to kick those hard-line political ideologies aside. In a recession such as this, or any other time of crisis, the government needs to work. Party-politics is simply not an option.