As we learned yesterday from Franco Venturini of Italy’s Corriere della Sera, a G-20 clash is brewing between the United States, which favors more stimulus and consumption, and Europe, which favors less stimulus and more regulation of the global financial system.
But unlike Venturini, who sees real danger in this difference of views and its likely consequences, Pierre Rousselin of France’s Le Figaro is more optimistic that such divergences need not result in a train wreck.
“In the United States – even with Obama, there’s no question of ‘restructuring capitalism’ or even of ‘moralizing’ it, as much as these concepts please French ears. There are the makings if a sharp disagreement on both form and substance … there hasn’t been a word out of the mouth of the American president about financial regulation, while Nicolas Sarkozy makes this his priority for the G20 summit. … There are the makings if a sharp disagreement on both form and substance. But this difference in views need not turn the London summit into an occasion for a clash of two wills.”
EDITORIAL By Pierre Rousselin
Translated By L. McKenzie Zeiss
March 26, 2009
France – Le Figaro – Original Article (French)
On the same day, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy dealt with the same subject. On Tuesday night, the American president held his second press conference at the White House just after the speech of the President of the Republic at Saint-Quentin. Both men wanted to reassure the public which is disoriented by the magnitude of the crisis. They wanted to prove their capacity to get the economy on the right track.
Two key figures, two opposing styles. Two very distinct societies. Two diverse cultures. Faced with adversity and in the absence of a magic formula, political will is essential on both sides of the Atlantic. The problems are similar and the remedies not necessarily so different. And yet, the tone is not the same.
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