G-20 Tells U.S. to Get Moving on Reform

This past weekend, finance ministers from nations representing the Group of Twenty ("G-20") met in London to review progress made on action plans from the emergency meeting held in Washington D.C. last fall.  A major outcome of the meeting was a rebuke of the United States call for further capital injections into weak financial institutions.  Instead, the G-20 pressed the need to make progress on the action plans to reform financial regulation and risk management.   Here are a few views of G-20 members as reported in yesterday's  Wall Street Journal.  

The U.S.'s overseas allies ratcheted up pressure during the weekend to tackle the ailing banking system. "Some countries have not fixed their banks, so I want them to fix their banks," Canada's finance minister, Jim Flaherty, said, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to the U.S.  Germany's finance minister, Peer Steinbrueck, made a similar point as a way of deflecting U.S. demands for more stimulus spending.  "We are convinced it makes no sense to pump more and more money in our economy when we haven't restored the confidence on the financial markets," he told reporters .

As a result, expect to see some major headway in the regulatory reform movement over the next few weeks. Click here to view the latest progress report by the G-20.