Don’t Accept G-20 “Hope” for Real “Change”

Terry Miller / June 25, 2010

The willingness of some in the media to accept even the most vapid of statements from international leaders as evidence of major policy change provides evidence daily that reporters, like the rest of us, can let their hopes get in the way of their judgment.

A case in point is today’s editorial in the Washington Post by David Ignatius on the G-20 summit getting underway in Toronto.  For Ignatius, President Obama’s recent letter to his G-20 counterparts, in which he called for restraint in easing government spending, fewer exports by everyone but the United States (this the real meaning of his call for “balanced global demand”), and market-determined exchange rates, is evidence that “the United States is once again in the driver’s seat.”  Ignatius points out that in response to Obama, China has allowed a liberalization of its currency regime, a development to which he allots 5 paragraphs of his commentary. (more…)