How Will World Leaders Fix the Financial Mess?
This week, the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies will gather in Pittsburgh with an ambitious agenda: strengthening international financial regulation, coordinating economic recovery, and financing the most vulnerable developing countries. Given the history of ineffective economic coordination among world leaders, from the Basel II Accord in 2004 to the current trade negotiations of the Doha Development Round, it’s no wonder that expectations for this summit are low. The G-20, however, has already brought about unprecedented levels of cooperation among its members to fight the global recession through large-scale fiscal expansion and resources committed to the International Monetary Fund. The group is now poised to take center stage for guiding global financial reform. Harvard professor Ken Rogoff, former chief economist of the IMF, talked to the Prospect about the underlying issues dividing the leading economies of the world. An edited transcript follows. Economists and pundi
