G20 leaders are in agreement:
Austerity for workers and ...
No increase in taxes on banks.
What is this?
Tragedy?
Comedy?
Farce?
I'd be weeping, but my cries would never be heard through the howls of neo-liberal laughter emanating from this week's G20 meeting.
Here is the scoop:
The world's financial leaders have decided that the time for stimulus is over, and the time for global fiscal austerity is now, according to the FT.
This decision by the G20 is a result of a lack of market confidence in the fiscal position of many leading countries, due to their expansion in sovereign debt. That expansion has led to speculation about the default and demise of many countries' financial positions and the euro currency.
G20 leaders have also agreed not to move forward with a synchronized tax on banks.
The original FT article is behind a pay wall.
It's being whispered that Tim Geithner was actually one of the least hawkish of the bunch when it came time for G20 leaders to strut their austerity credentials.
No matter ...
Alea jacta est!
Let's see where this game gets us.
Digby comments:
I think it's easy to over think this. The world economy is unstable for myriad reasons. But the reasons for insisting on austerity are fairly obvious. The question is whether or not people will see through this or not. Disaster capitalism depends upon the people being confused and stressed for its success. (In that sense, rioting in the streets may actually help them.) And all over the world right now, with the rapid change from globalization and resistance to modernity in general, there is a tremendous amount of social stress and cultural upheaval on top of this economic downturn. It's the perfect time to strike.
Powerful private interests are lobbying G20 governments to impose austerity measures on their population.
It's no mystery why:
They hope to make permanent the gains they achieved during the boom. They want to gold plate their gold and stick working people with the losses.
So far, what they are doing is working.
UPDATE: The laffs continue, care off The Guardian:
Finance ministers from the world's leading economies yesterday called on indebted countries to speed up the pace of their austerity drives in the wake of the Greek crisis, in order to ease fears on the markets over sovereign finances.
We'll starve these economies back into shape!
Notably, China is horrified:
Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren urged the Group of 20 economies to be cautious about exiting from stimulus programs and to preserve policy continuity.
“Countries should cautiously decide the timing and ways of exit strategy based on their own situations,” Xie told the G-20 finance ministers and central bankers at a meeting in Busan, South Korea, according to a statement posted to the Chinese central bank’s website. Policy makers should be mindful of inflation and fiscal risks while making efforts to sustain economic growth, Xie said.
And so is India.