THE MIRACLE OF LONDON
DANIEL DREZNER
Your humble blogger has learned that, in an amazing reversal of fortune, the leaders of the G-20 have heeded President Obama's call to embrace a "responsiblity to co-ordinate our action and find our common ground." The result will be a communique that actually addresses the current crisis on concrete terms.
Recognizing the need for a "grand bargain," French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel pledged to offer a combined $400 billion in fiscal stimulus in return for a United States agreement to allow for enhanced regulation of large financial institutions. China agreed to match U.S. and European commitments to the International Monetary Fund, in return for a doubling of its voting quota within the Fund. Furthermore, all parties agreed on their joint responsibility in unwinding the macroeconomic imbalances that contributed to the current crisis, thereby pleasing Martin Wolf to no end.
The G-20 leaders summit will have an immediate follow-up of a meeting of the G-20 trade negotiators, with the stated intent of completing the Doha round before the end of the year. The Obama administration, in line with attempts to reduce the budget deficit, have taken the first concrete step, pledging to slash agricultural subsidies by more than 80% over the next four years.
In related news, France and the United Kingdom agreed to relinquish their Security Council seats in return for an "EU" seat, paving the way for Japan, India and Brazil to join as permanent members, creating a new "P-7" in the Security Council.
These breakthroughs were achieved on the same day that a mysterious chemical attack was unleashed in Washington DC that rendered Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck, Chris Matthews, Sean Hannity, James Carville, Paul Begala and Bill Bennett permanently and irrevocably mute.
In honor of General Buck Turgidson, I see that the French are pulling away in the diva arms race as the London G-20 Summit approaches:
France will walk away from this week's G20 summit if its demands for stricter financial regulation are not met, the finance minister has told the BBC.
Christine Lagarde told HardTalk that President Nicolas Sarkozy would not sign any agreement if he felt "the deliverables are not there".
This is yet another example of France's unsurpassed superiority in world politics at doing things that make the global press pay attention to France.
One could argue that the United States should concentrate its energies on actual policy coordination. Any great power worth its salt, however, should be able to do the policy coordination and practice diva bargaining tactics.
I therefore propose that President Obama add Miss Britney Spears to the U.S. negotiating team. Let France try to make its voice heard in that media maelstrom.
Other proposals to counter France's bargaining tactics are warmly welcomed in the comments.
UPDATE: To be fair to Sarkozy, he is not the only Frenchmen who is grandstanding at the moment.
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