Separate solutions for global problem?
Finance ministers from around the world will be meeting in Tokyo tomorrow for the G7 conference. But Stephen Beard reports chances are they won't be working together on just one solution to global economic crises.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari, who will be attending the G7 conference in Tokyo. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)
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Doug Krizner: Finance ministers from the G7 nations meet in Tokyo tomorrow. They'll be talking about threats to the global economy. But as Stephen Beard reports, there seems little chance of a coordinated plan to combat a worldwide slowdown.
Stephen Beard: As the G7 ministers get together, one of them is stressing their differences: U.K. finance chief Alistair Darling.
He says economic conditions in the seven member countries are not the same. Therefore they call for separate solutions. Steep cuts in interest rates and a stimulus package might be the right move in the U.S., he said, but not necessarily elsewhere.
Guy Ryder is the head of an international labor union organization. He says concerted global action is required:
Guy Ryder: It does look like the G7 finance ministers are going to fail in this crisis situation. And that's even though the International Monetary Fund, for example, is warning just how bad the situation is.
Last month, the IMF called for more rich countries to follow the U.S. example and pump more public money into their economies. Britain, Germany and Japan rejected that call.
In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.
