This weekend's hastily convened G20 summit could end up doing more harm than good, experts say

[marmar]

from MarketWatch:



Experts set low threshold of 'do no harm' for G20
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch


WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Do no harm. That is bottom-line request from economists and policy experts to the global leaders who will gather in Washington this weekend to discuss the economic crisis.

It has been only 35 days since the idea of the global summit was hatched by President Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicholas Sarkozy at their summit at the Camp David presidential retreat -- not enough time for a comprehensive response to the turmoil to be completed, analysts said.

"Having some broad restructuring at this point would kind of be like in the middle of a five-alarm fire calling together the fire chiefs and trying to restructure the fire department," said Steven Schrage, a former economic advisor in the Bush administration and now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"And you could also do more harm than good," he said.

The list of missteps that could send markets into tailspins is almost endless. Finger-pointing, disunity or a sense that the gravity of the situation has not sunk in could lead markets to crater, experts warned.

"If there is ... disunion between the parties at this event, I think that markets will react very, very badly to that," said Charles Freedman, an expert on China at the CSIS.

But the meeting is important if the leaders could agree not to take any independent "beggar-thy-neighbor actions" that could lead to further economic woes. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Experts-want-G20-do-no/story.aspx?guid=%7B5D12C1AE%2DCADC%2D4346%2D9EB1%2D77AC345D318B%7D

[malaise]

1. It will only do harm to the neo-liberals

Good fugging riddance.