EUROPE IS EAGER TO GET RID OF THE US DIKTAT IN ECONOMY AND FINANCE
Karine Ter-Sahakyan
PanARMENIAN.Net
21.10.2008 GMT+04:00
"The US is to blame for everything". Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian
President Dmitri Medvedev regularly voice this accusation in their
recent statements.
In the face of the global financial crisis ex-allies are even more
loudly declaring about their right to independently solve their
problems, which arouse as a result of the myopic US policy in the
field of mortgage lending and spread over the other spheres of banking
operations. Still at the beginning of the current year the biggest
US banks raised alarm declaring that granted mortgage loans were not
reimbursed. However, no one listened to them and the result for it
was the crisis that we now face. The EU decided to immediately hold
a world summit for saving the financial and banking structure in the
format of extended G-8 with participation of such emerging economies
as India, China, Brazil and others.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ According to Nicolas Sarkozy the summit should
preferably be held in New York, "where everything started". In fact,
the European Union is going over the Bretton Woods agreements of
1944, which laid out the present monetary system and founded IMF
(International Monetary Fund) as American instruments of exerting
pressure on weak and poor countries.
Experts believe that there will be no second Bretton Woods. Firstly
because the preparations of the Â"originalÂ" Bretton Woods took
rather long and it was held for about a month (from 1 July to
22 July 1944), whereas participants of the summit are short of
time. Secondly, the Bretton Woods conference was held in the frames
of the UN and was formally called the United Nations Monetary and
Financial Conference, while the summit will be held outside the
UN framework. Thirdly, Bretton Woods conference was a gathering of
delegates from 44 nations, whose decisions were not then compulsory
for their governments. However, the major difference between 1944
and 2008 is the position of the United States. In 1944 the US was an
indisputable leader of the West, while today it has lost its label of
a leader. Under current circumstances the USA will struggle against
France and Great Britain, if not against the whole European Union. And
it is difficult to say who will win the fight.
Calling of the summit was suggested by the US President, while
the initiative is still on the side of Europe. According to Fred
Bergsten, Director of the Peterson Institute for International
Economics, unlike the USA Europe has a great experience of industry
nationalization. English laborists, French socialists and German
social-democrats all take up to this when coming to power. However,
under the pressure of the current financial crisis the other side of
the Atlantic has to follow their European counterparts. Professor
of the Princeton University Andrew Moravcsik considers that "The
experience of following the European example, for once, could have
domestic political implications for the United States. Americans,
especially conservatives have a particular view of Europe as
overregulated, therefore suffering from weak growth and Euro-sclerosis
that delays rapid economic growth in Europe. The current crisis
may change that view, and create more respect for the European view
of regulation".
With his suggestion to extend the limits of G-8 meeting with the help
of the "emerging countries", particularly China and India, Bush first
of all removed the UN from the process. By replacing the G-8 meeting,
where the US is a minority, by a wider forum, Bush in fact tried to
seize the joystick from the hands of Europeans who have taken refuge
in the global character of the crisis. "Since the world has never
been so interdependent before, it is essential that we work together
because we’re in this crisis together. For the summit to be a success
we must welcome good ides from all over the world," the US President
said. In his turn, Sarkozy said: "Now we have a great opportunity to
put an end to the odious practice of the past, a practice that led to
the current crisis. We cannot go on the same way otherwise we shall
face the same problems that provoke the same catastrophe."
Meanwhile with the opening of European markets, stocks of French
banks and oil have increased in price. Moscow markets opened with a
rise of basic indices reaching no more than 3%.
The common rise in European markets is connected with the optimism of
American and Asian markets, which, despite the reserved conclusion
of the session are disposed positively. The reason for it is the
statement of Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, who spoke
on Monday of a "new economic stimulus package to help cash-strapped
Americans". However, Sarkozy believes that the European Union should
consistently speak with one voice only, if it wants to play an active
role in the solution of political and economic crises.
In a word, the US is to blame for everything. Nicolas Sarkozy and
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev regularly voice this accusation in
their recent statements. "The financial crisis did not pass around
anyone, we suffered great losses. However, Russia is trying to overcome
it with minimal damage. Perhaps, fifteen years ago we wouldn’t be
faced with crisis, but globalization and open economy have played
their role in this process and now everyone is paying for the gross
mistakes made by a number of states, and first of all the USA. Yet,
I think we shall come over the present situation," Medvedev noted.
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