Posted by
Andrews on Thursday, April 02, 2009 7:08:55 PM
I was watching BBC America news on the G-20 summit and two thoughts occurred to me. I will doubtless have much more to say in the days to come, but these are my first two reactions to the coverage I saw.
First, Obama's comments on "FDR and Churchill sittin' in a room sippin' brandy." It was all both so classless and arrogant. Not only does he manage to run down leaders of the past, facing very real and complex problems (remember World War II?), but he also makes it sound as if he thinks whatever problems he must face are THE worst problems EVER. Has there ever been a more immature perspective on politics than Obama's? Like a teen calling his parents Nazis, Obama manages to inflate any difficulty he faces into the biggest problem ever. I don't know whether he really believes they must be that big (because they are happening to HIM) or whether he inflates them to make his eventual success seem all that more important. In short, is he delusional and arrogant or simply self-promoting?
Second, the talk of penalties for nation's "going it alone" and the talk of fighting "tax havens" is truly frightening. it means any nations which exercised fiscal restraint and now can institute pro-growth programs will be penalized by all the debtor nations which must tax their citizens into poverty. I truly hope Ireland and a few other pro-growth states thumb their noses at the G-20 bullies and lower their taxes even more. it would serve the debtor nations right to have to worry about capital flight while they engage in punitive taxation and insane inflation.
As I said, there will be more to come as I find out more details, but right now I have to say I doubt much good will come of this meeting. perhaps a bit of evil, especially in terms of penalizing nations which refuse to soak the rich, but very, very little good.