Had Enough?

The meeting of the American-Pacific Economic Conference in Peru yesterday was not pushed into action by the financial crisis. Waiting for the next administration in the U.S. became the order of the day.

Worldwide action to stop the continuing disaster shows sound fundamentals, at last. The IMF, and World Bank, will be reformed because with other economic policy theaters they have acted to divert funds intended to shore up weaker countries into over-arching financial industries rather than fight poverty and hunger. The results are more than disgrace, they are fatal to the financial community as well. Proof has been irrevocably supplied, that robbing the poor to give to the rich makes everyone poorer. Starvation has trickled up, rather than wealth trickling down.

This at last is wisdom free from political posturing. A statement by Canada's PM Harper and Mexico's President Calderon indicates that the group refuses to be pushed into action that would carry out the continuing maladministration's failed economic ideology.

...Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada and President Felipe Calderón of Mexico blamed the United States for starting the crisis and called for better banking regulations.

"Our closest neighbor and largest trading partner is the epicenter of the financial earthquake and global slowdown," Harper said in a speech to business leaders.

Calderon said structural problems in the global economy were allowed to fester before spiraling out of control.

"This wasn't caused by developing countries," he said.

APEC members said they strongly supported recommendations made last week in Washington by the Group of 20 nations. Nine of APEC's members belong to the Group of 20.

The Group of 20 agreed to strive for a deal on key farm and manufactured goods trade issues in the Doha round by the end of the year. It also pushed for government spending or tax incentives to spur economies and tougher oversight of the financial industry.

Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organization's director general, will chair a meeting of senior trade officials in Geneva on Sunday to assess the chances of reaching a deal.

But even if progress were made in Geneva on nagging disputes, Bush is a lame-duck president and Obama's stamp would be needed on any final pact.

Like all financial reporters, this writer prefers to coddle the criminals' whose misappropriation of funds has brought on the disaster we are muddling through until they are out of office. Lame duck status is not the main reason the APEC ministers refuse to self-destruct further by carrying out failed directives. The occupied White House's blind insistence on throwing the world's money into the financial sector having failed is the reason for putting off action until the adults are control.

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At The Sideshow, Avedon has a collection of reality-based posts titled All That Glitters that detail the crimes that have brought disaster to the entire world's economic status.