The world is in financial disarray, facing the danger of widespread protectionism, food crisis and unemployment. The G20 – comprising some of the world’s major economies, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – is meeting in Pittsburgh Sep. 24-25 to seal firm agreements to put the global economy on the right track.

While the plans were outlined in London in April, there are still gaps that need to be filled. Leaders discussed coordinated actions to revive the global economy, stimulate growth and employment, and reform the financial sector, but some pressing issues were not substantially addressed at all – including climate change.

Will the G20 succeed? Are the voices of the most vulnerable, developing and poor countries being heard? What does the civil society say about it? The world is watching.

FINANCE: World Bank, NGOs Exhort G20 Not to Forget the Poorest
By Jim Lobe and Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON (IPS) – The World Bank and major non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are calling on leaders who will gather for next week’s Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Pittsburgh not to forget the needs of the world’s poorest countries, which have been severely affected by the last year’s financial crisis.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48465

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G20: Moving Up BRIC by BRIC
Analysis by Sanjay Suri
LONDON (IPS) – Every one of these ‘G’ meetings becomes now an occasion for the developing countries – say the emerging economies – to turn that extra energy into a louder voice in the business of global decision-taking.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48339

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ECONOMY-US: Obama Presses Reforms Ahead of G20 Meet
By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON (IPS) – U.S. President Barack Obama called Monday for stricter regulation in the financial industries and warned firms that are considering large bonuses for their executives to remember the debt they owe to taxpayers and the federal government for bailing them out last year.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48437

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CARIBBEAN: Govts Seek “Clarity” from IMF, G20
By Peter Richards
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (IPS) – When the G20 countries met in London earlier this year and agreed to pump more money into the coffers of major financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the news was largely greeted with enthusiasm by developing nations, particularly those in the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region. But now regional leaders say they are unsure whether they will in fact benefit from these funds, or how the money, the amount of which is still uncertain, would be disbursed and under what conditions.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46974

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G20: More May Be Needed, to Do More
Analysis by Sanjay Suri
LONDON (IPS) – The tests are coming thick and fast. After the G20 summit in Washington last year, the G20 in London in April, and the G8 in L’Aquila that was substantially a G20, the G20 finance ministers are meeting in London ahead of the G20 gathering in Pittsburgh later this month. Finance of course is what it is all about. And conflicting financial interests along the traditional divide between the developed and developing, now complicated by what are called the emerging economies – a little developed and a lot developing.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48332

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DEVELOPMENT: China Lends Support to U.N. Finance Summit
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING (IPS) – China has lent its support to a U.N. finance summit where developing countries are pressing to air their grievances over how the global economic crisis has affected the world?s poorest. Yet, for the largest developing country the crisis remains a debacle with a silver lining – a matchless opportunity to accomplish its dream of regaining the regional and global clout it once held, and fast forward its ambitions.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47352

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ECONOMY-US: Activists Demand Real Change as Foreclosures Mount
By Adrianne Appel
BOSTON (IPS) – Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. continue to lose their homes each month in an ongoing crisis that is wreaking chaos on communities, advocates say.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48346

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Q&A: “Political Elites Ensure Continuing Flight of Dirty Money”
Hilaire Avril interviews RAYMOND BAKER, campaigner against corruption and money-laundering
PARIS (IPS) – Illegal capital flight in the form of corrupt, criminal and illicit commercial proceeds out of developing economies could be as high as one trillion dollars a year.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48460

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TRADE: Will Obama Steer New Course in Delhi and Pittsburgh?
By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON (IPS) – A “mini-ministerial” meeting has been convened by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Delhi to help member countries draft a roadmap to conclude the troubled Doha round and set the stage for the G20 later this month and the WTO ministerial in Geneva in November.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48321

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TRADE: “Tyre War” Strains U.S.-China Relations
By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON (IPS) – U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision last week to impose tariffs on Chinese tyre imports has sparked a war of words with Beijing, which could lead to retaliatory tariffs and a possible World Trade Organisation (WTO) investigation into U.S. use of emergency tariffs against one of its biggest trading partner.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48451

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FINANCE: Congress, Activists Push for Conditions on IMF Funding
By Danielle Kurtzleben and Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Development groups and some U.S. lawmakers are urging the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to use its power on the governing board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to make the global financial body more transparent, democratic and responsive to the needs of its poorest borrowers.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47707

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Q&A: Tax Havens, Bank Secrecy, and Tricks
Lucy Komisar interviews BOB ROACH, Chief Investigator of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate
MIAMI, Florida (IPS) – At a recent conference in Miami organised by Offshore Alert, a specialised media organisation focused on financial crime, IPS correspondent Lucy Komisar sat down with veteran investigator Bob Roach to discuss the hurdles facing regulators trying to crack down on tax havens, which cost the U.S. alone an estimated 100 billion dollars annually.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47658

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Q&A: U.N.’s Enormous Potential Being Marginalised
Thalif Deen interviews MIGUEL D’ESCOTO BROCKMANN, President of the General Assembly
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – An international conference on the global financial crisis – hosted by the United Nations – is being marginalised by Western countries which have refused to send any of their political leaders to the meeting.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47343

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Read More IPS Coverage of the G20: www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/G20/index.asp

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Don’t Miss IPS Coverage of the G192 – The South Speaks Out:
IPS is following the progress of proposals to minimise impacts of the world financial and economic crisis on the most vulnerable.
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/G192/index.asp

IPS SPECIAL COVERAGE OF ECONOMY, TRADE AND FINANCE FROM AROUND THE GLOBE.
There is a global economy beyond Wall Street, and IPS shows you how it works.
www.ipsnews.net/economy.asp

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