Obama readies for G20 Summit, to push for responsibility fee for top financial players
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to engaging in official agenda of G20 Summit in Cannes, France on Thursday according to the White House officials.
Addressing journalists Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security advisor for strategic communications announced that President Obama would have two bilateral meetings, “first with President Sarkozy of France, and then with Chancellor Merkel of Germany.”
Citing them as “important meetings for him (President Obama) to have consultations with these leaders before the G20 commences,” Rhodes said the president would also meet the same day, “L20, the international labor leaders who will be in Cannes as a part of the G20 program.”
Although the Obama Administration officials did not announce any bilateral meeting with Chinese leadership, the focus beyond the Eurozone crisis would be on the Chinese currency.
Joining Rhodes at the White House briefing on Monday, Lael Brainard, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for international affairs told journalists, “In China and other surplus emerging-market economies, allowing exchange rates to appreciate to reflect market forces is the most powerful near-term tool to accelerate the shift to domestic consumption, while countering inflationary pressures.”
Brainard urged emerging economies including China, “to shift to domestic consumption-led growth, rather than relying on an outdated growth model based on net exports to advanced economies where demand is likely to be weak for some time.”
“The exchange rate plays the most powerful potential near-term role as a lever in helping that shift,” added Brainard.
On the question of dealing with the Wall Street fiasco, Brainard said, “With regard to discussions about getting the financial sector to bear their fair share of the burden, we’re very much in sync with Europe on their goal of ensuring both that the financial sector — large financial institutions — bear their fair share of the burden, but also that they’re discouraged from taking the kind of risky behavior that led to the crisis.”
Elaborating Brainard said, “The President has also put forward a financial crisis responsibility fee that would be directed at the largest financial institutions that really impose the greatest costs on the economy.”
Calling these proposals as “pretty well designed to both deter the kind of risky behavior that led to the crisis, and to ensure that these large financial institutions and not retail investors bear their fair share of the burden,” Brainard said, “We put forward the fee because we think it’s more important to put the burden on the largest financial institutions rather than shifting it to retail investors.”
On the domestic political situation accompanying President Obama on his G20 trip, Carney last week acknowledged “gridlock” with Republican leaders as the lawmakers dragged their feed on Obama’s ambitious $447 billion jobs bill, and slow progress at a bipartisan congressional committee shouldering the responsibility to cut at least $1.2 trillion in additional spending.
Sounding a positive note, Carney, however added, “The president’s message to the Europeans and broadly to all the members of the G20 is that we need to work individually as countries and collectively together to ensure that we sustain and continue the global economic recovery and to put our people broadly speaking back to work.”
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