[tomder55]

World Leaders Agree to Seek Major Reform - washingtonpost.com

World leaders holding an emergency meeting to combat the economic crisis agreed yesterday to a far-reaching action plan that, over the next 4 1/2 months, would begin to reshape international financial institutions and reform worldwide regulatory and accounting rules.

The leaders agreed to set up a new regulatory body, “a college of supervisors,” to examine the books of major financial institutions that operate across national borders, so regulators could begin to have a more complete picture of banks’ operations. They demanded greater scrutiny of hedge funds and the completion of a clearinghouse system to help standardize and limit risk on some of the opaque and exotic financial derivatives that helped bring down Wall Street’s investment banks.

No doubt George Soros will be Dean of the college.

They met at the White House over the weekend eating "Fruitwood-smoked Quail," "Thyme-roasted Rack of Lamb," and "Tomato, Fennel and Eggplant Fondue Chanterelle Jus";and sucking down Shafer Cabernet “Hillside Select” 2003, a wine that sells at $499 on Wine.com. (CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - CNN Political Ticker AM « - Blogs from CNN.com
And came up with an idea to regulate the world economy to European standards .

The Europeans got "virtually everything" they sought at the summit, French President Nicholas Sarkozy crowed afterward at a news conference.

Will new global regulations prevent the next bubble and the crash ? Of course not !Yeah EU bean counting bureaucrats will make our businesses solvent! No doubt American businesses will pay hefty fees and dues for the privilege of being ruled in Europe.
Would this new “college” have caught Fannie and Freddie's 3 card monte game in the last 5 years ? If so, could they have forced Dodd and Frank to change their tune about reforming the system ?More likely it would've created another wall to accountability and transparency just like the current overbloated bureaucracy does .

Reforms to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank will be discussed at the second G20 economic summit next year;no doubt setting the stage for a unified global currency.

[excon]

Hello tom:

When Nixon closed the gold window some 37 years ago, it marked the end of a golden age of robust trade and unprecedented global economic growth. The Bretton Woods system, that Nixon threw way, derived its strength from a commitment by the U.S. to redeem dollars for gold on demand.

The present meltdown, in my view, can be directly attributed to the repudiation of Bretton Woods.

A young Paul Volker was part of Treasury that fateful day. This is what he says about it today:

"What kind of signals does that send about where a businessman should intelligently invest his capital for long-term profitability? In the grand scheme of economic life first described by Adam Smith, in which nations like individuals should concentrate on the things they do best, how can anyone decide which country produces what most efficiently when the prices change so fast? The answer, to me, must be that such large swings are a symptom of a system in disarray."

Paul Volker DOES have a say today, and he'll have a bigger one when Obama takes over.

Instead of attempting to unify the worlds currency into one, as you (and no doubt Bush's team) suggests, it appears to me, that he's going to remonetize gold.

That'll do more to regulate the worldwide markets than ANY law any government can make.

Read the whole WSJ editorial by Judy Shelton, here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1226...cle-outset-box

excon

[tomder55]

Perhaps ;but more likely the Europeans like Brown and especially Sarkosy are looking to make the euro supreme.Brown and Sarkozy, have recently vowed to change the international monetary system created at the Bretton Woods; not to reintroduce it. Rudd of Australia has been talking of a Asian Union . As for Bush ;for all I know at this point ,he may favor that unified north american currency idea. His rhetoric before the meeting opposing any system of international regulation certainly did not match the statement that came out of the meeting.

Bretton Woods worked because there was no issue about the US economy being dominant . This meeting more resembled the Economic Conference held in London in June 1933.
London Economic Conference - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It would've been wise for Obama to have attended this conference. Everyone knows how Bush stands on this ;but he is leaving and was very much a lame duck at this meeting . Will Obama ;like Roosevelt before him (also absent from the 1933 conference) refuse to cooperate with this international solution ? Will he risk isolationisms return ? I have never heard Obama speak in favor of returning to gold standard. I have no reason to believe he favors it.

[Galveston1]

Ex, I know you have a lot of confidence in your gold, BUT wasn't it FDR that took all the gold away from US citizens? They were forced to surrender it for paper. Outrageous? YES. Possible again? Of course.

What would you do in such a case? You are certainly not alone.

[Fr_Chuck]

Just wait, AMHD is getting billions to rely on it for knowledge and though our answers we guide them into our way of political thinking, And over time, yes, we control the world.

Or perhaps I need to start with decaf

[magprob]

They are going to create yet another college of useless bureaucrats that will not do a damn thing but receive outrageous pay for sharing information one can easily find on Bloomberg. Any information actually worth sharing will be hidden from public view just as it is now.

The leaders directed their finance ministers to work on recommendations for enhancing disclosure by investors and institutions, including hedge funds, of their financial conditions.
Meanwhile Paulson and Bernanke are in a battle with Bloomberg because they are failing to disclose to investors exactly what they are doing with taxpayer money.

Bailout=A seven-hundred billion dollar parting gift from Dubya to his "base," AKA partners in crime.