Let’s solve something completely different


There’s little likelihood of anything being achieved by the Group of 20 this week to lessen the impact of the global financial crisis, so the world leaders are desperately searching for something else they can agree on.Reports from London overnight suggest that the chosen face saver is to take uniform action to try and get rid of tax havens. Now that might be a very good thing to do but it has little or no relevance to stopping the world sliding in to an even deeper recessionary state.
On the contrary it is quite possible that causing an upheaval in international banking arrangements at this time of monetary turmoil will in the short term make things worse. That is a risk that politicians like our own Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who have talked up the importance of the G20 gathering, are prepared to take as they don’t want to look impotent and simply announce that the only agreement is to meet again some time in the future.

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