Differing agendas of G20 - Nov, 15th 2008

United States The US is scared of new, onerous regulation and is urging European countries to respect free-market principles on the basis that long-term state intervention will damage economic growth. But US policy on bailing out troubled industries is split: Barack Obama, the President-elect, wants to use federal funds to rescue American car companies; many Republicans do not.

Britain Gordon Brown has a long list. To start with, he wants “co-ordinated fiscal stimulus packages” — which means getting countries to increase public spending to create new jobs and offer tax rebates to families. He wants the IMF to create a council of experts to monitor the markets for danger signs — his much-vaunted early-warning system — and the IMF’s coffers to be boosted by cash-rich states such as Saudi Arabia and China. He is also calling for a clean-up of the banking system, including a network of regulators to scrutinise (kiểm tra, thanh tra) the world’s biggest banks.

France President Sarkozy is also pushing for cross-border regulation, meaning he wants to control French banks even when they are operating outside French borders. He sees the crisis as an opportunity to depose (hạ bệ) the US dollar as the king of currencies, and replace it with the euro. Mr Sarkozy would also like an overhaul (đại tu, kiểm tra sửa lỗi) of the world financial architecture, including making rating agencies more regulated and forcing accounting standards to be the same worldwide.

Germany The Germans are deeply suspicious of secretive hedge funds, which control about $2.5 trillion worth of assets and whose activities are not regulated. They blame the hedge funds for market volatility and driving down shares by short-selling. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor, also backs greater powers for the IMF to oversee international companies, revised rules for rating agencies and making it harder to hide risks off company balance sheets.

Russia President Medvedev wants more say in the IMF, so he is teaming up with Mr Sarkozy to back President Bush into a corner. He wants alternatives to the IMF as lenders of last resort and is willing to contribute to the cost of the new agencies. Russia has also pressed for international budgetary and economic rules to prevent any further crises

China China wants to press the West for a bigger role in global financial bodies such as the IMF but at the same time it has been trying to lower Western expectations that it will join in global actions. It cites as reasons its own economic problems and limited resources as a developing country.

Brazil and other developing nations These want changes to the voting structure at the IMF and the World Bank’s to give them more of a voice.

Onerous: needing great effort; causing trouble or worry

split: chia rẽ

vaunted: proudly talked about or praised as being very good, especially when this is not deserved

coffer: ngân quỹ (túi tiền của IMF)