It’s fair to say that at the just-concluded G-8 Summit in Japan, the world’s leading industrialized nations haven’t covered themselves in glory.
Pierre Rousselin writes for France’s Le Figaro newspaper:
“Confronted with skyrocketing oil prices, the rising cost of food, the financial crisis, chaos in the money markets and finally, global warming, the powerful have no convincing response to provide the world.
On all of these issues – and without forgetting the Iranian nuclear threat, the G-8 Summit in Japan has illustrated the impotence of the major industrialized nations which, until recently, were able to impose their views to the rest of the planet.”
And the culprit – especially in regard to climate change?:
“The absence of vision is largely the result of the now-concluding American administration, which only recently recognized the existence of the problem.”
By Pierre Rousselin
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
July 8, 2008
France – Le Figaro – Original Article (French)
Confronted with skyrocketing oil prices, the rising cost of food, the financial crisis, chaos in the money markets and finally, global warming, the powerful have no convincing response to provide the world.
On all of these issues – and without forgetting the Iranian nuclear threat, the G-8 Summit in Japan has illustrated the impotence of the major industrialized nations which, until recently, were able to impose their views to the rest of the planet.
It’s been nearly three decades since the global economy has been in a situation as critical as the one that began last summer with the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United-States.
After the euphoria that followed the economic take-off of Asian giants like China and India, the hour of gloom and anxiety arrived. What was expected to be only temporary, we continue to feel the effects of the financial crisis. A downward spiral has been set in motion which has been greatly reinforced by speculation: strong demand raises the cost of raw materials, while the decline in the dollar increases the price of oil. Confronted with such disorder, a vigorous response would seem a necessity. It hasn’t come.
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