G20 Summit, IMF Meeting: What To Expect?

The CSA is Selling Advanced Access to SEDAR filings A letter to the Canadian Securities Administrators from Corebox.net The security commissions of BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, acting collectively as the CSA, are selling advanced access to SEDAR filings, while delaying public access to the same documents. This is wrong. The CSA purports to, “promote confidence in the transparent operation of capital markets in Canada”, and to “…[mandate the] full disclosure of information material to investment decisions.”[1]

Western officials should have realised this Summit would be different when they arrived in Seoul to find their phones and blackberrys didn't work. The problem was that Korea's nationwide 4G network was too advanced. On early negotiating missions, key UK officials found themselves communicating with London via gmail, on rented phones. That was never a problem in Pittsburgh, or Toronto. But as George Osborne liked to point out, this was the first G20 Summit not hosted by a G8 country - and, he might have added, the first where G8 countries didn't call the tune.

Seoul: The hard-working officials at these summits - those much-put-upon sherpahs - always try to agree as much as possible in advance. Only the thorniest issues are left in brackets, for the leaders to thrash out among themselves. When they went into their working dinner tonight, I'm told the latest drafts of the communique still had brackets around the key references to exchange rates - and imbalances.

According to the WSJ this morning (top of p.A1), the US is pushing hard for the G20 to adopt and implement a “Framework for Sustainable and Balanced Growth,” which would amount to the US saving more, China saving less, and Europe “making structural changes to boost business investment” (and presumably some homework for Japan and the oil exporters, although that is not stressed in the article).

By Simon Johnson The official reconciliation process between Senate and House reform bills will get underway next week, but the behind-the-scenes maneuvering (and intense lobbying) is already well underway.  The main remaining question is whether the final legislation will ultimately make the financial system at all safer than it was in the run up to the crisis of September 2008.

Testifying today before the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit took pains to strike the right notes. Near the beginning of his prepared testimony, he said, “First, however, I want to thank our Government for providing Citi with TARP funds.

It is easy to dismiss the G20 communique and all the associated spin as empty waffle.  Ask people in a month what was accomplished in Pittsburgh and you’ll get the same blank stare that follows when you now ask: What was achieved at the G8 summit in Italy this year? Perhaps just having emerging markets at the table will bring the world closer to stability and more inclined towards inclusive growth, but that seems unlikely.  Should we just move on – back to our respective domestic policy struggles?

The headline news from the G20 summit in Pittsburgh is that progress has been made on “IMF reform,” meaning increased voting power for emerging markets relative to rich countries – remember that West Europeans are greatly overrepresented at the IMF for historical reasons.  But further change in a sensible direction is being blocked by the UK and France – because they have figured out that this logic implies they would lose their individual seats on the IMF’s executive board.