Context:  G20 summits

There have been five G20 leader-summits in the space of two-years. These are signs of 1) how grave the global economic recession, financial crisis and credit squeeze have been, and 2) the high level of international coordination of efforts to bring these to a halt. Regrettably, economic recovery, the world-wide growth in jobs and livelihoods, and sustained improvement in the levels of well-being for most nations still remain distant goals. In particular, the credit crunch has not been substantially eased, and instead speculative financial waves threaten major currencies, a return to the inflation of commodity prices, and financial instability in major countries (particularly those in Europe, and to a lesser extent Japan and the United States).

While fears of a double-dip recession have somewhat receded among global investors, their general expectation is that a turnaround of the economic recession will remain slow, halting, fragile, …..