Next week, President Obama will join eight prime ministers, 11 presidents, one chancellor, one king, and a smattering of international organization leaders in London for the second-ever meeting of G20 leaders.
Their mission? To stop the world economic free fall and ensure a similar financial crisis cannot happen again. Also on the agenda are new roles for the IMF and World Bank, low-carbon paths to economic recovery, helping developing nations cope, and unfreezing global trade talks.
Unfortunately, there are reasons to doubt we will see substantial progress next week. First, there is a genuine, substantive disagreement between Europe and the United States about what to prioritize. America wants to focus more on stimulus measures while Europe wants to get started on implementing new regulations. This stalemate continues.
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