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 | G-20(20) vision: Follow Bush's words, not deeds Our Correspondent The global financial crisis has given a great deal of bad press to capitalism. All enemies of free market are ganging up, resuscitating their discredited slogans and making a case for big government all over the world. Worse, they seem to be gaining ground, especially after the victory of Barack Obama—who equates conservative economic philosophy with an abomination called social Darwinism—in the strongest bastion of capitalism, the United States. In these politically correct times, it is also fashionable to castigate US President George Bush for some of his wrong policies. The deliberations at the G-20 Summit should be viewed in this backdrop. It is indeed a matter of relief that the meeting of rich and emerging economies did not give a major stimulus to a bigger and more interventionist government role in global financial system. As Bush said just before the Summit, "Our aim should not be more government. It should be smarter government." What is equally heartening is that there was a broad agreement on checking any protectionist proclivities. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke against the menace of protectionism. The US President was on the same frequency over the issue: "That attitude [of protectionism] was rejected, thankfully. And as a matter of fact, not only rejected, there is a determined effort to see if we can't complete the modalities for Doha by the end of December." It is also gratifying to notice that the developed world has acknowledged the growing role of "emerging economies." G-20 is said to be contemplating the expansion of the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), an exclusive advisory body of the G-7, to include countries such as India and China. The FSF "should expand to a broader membership of emerging economies," the G-20 leaders said in their action plan. This, too, was demanded by the Prime Minister, who had called for a "broad-based" multilateral approach and consultation to overcome the raging financial crisis. "Bodies such as the G-7 are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of the day. We need to ensure that any new architecture we design is genuinely multilateral with adequate representation from countries reflecting changes in economic realities," Singh had opined. The multilateralism, it needs to be reiterated, should be based on the principles of market economy. As Bush said, "The crisis was not a failure of the free market system. And the answer is not to try to reinvent that system." He can be accused of not following his own principles, as evident from the trillion-dollar bailout package. But his failure should not be equated with the failure of his principles. The world should do what he preaches, not what he practices. Posted on : 11/24/2008 Mail this article to your friend |