Mar 31, 2009 11:50am
Europa, Europa
EmailLONDON — French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told the BBC that the French delegation will walk away from the G-20 economic summit if the nation’s demands for stricter financial regulation are not met.
"Yes, we will," Christine Lagarde told "Hardtalk." "President Sarkozy was very clear on that front. He said that ‘if the deliverables are not there, I won’t sign the communiqué. … It means walking away."
President Obama faces perhaps his toughest audience this week — world leaders. A far cry from the rapturous 200,000 Berliners who came to see then-candidate Obama speak last summer.
Now he is President Obama and for many he is the face of American capitalism that many blame for the current global economic woes.
Read more HERE.
– jpt
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I just caught a news update on tv that showed the streets over in Europe filled with angry people. Almost rioting and protesting America.
Turn Obama’s jet around. Do whatever he has to do via satelite and video.
I don’t trust the security over there and just have that feeling that someone will try something.
Posted by: Fran, ca | March 31, 2009, 12:15 pm 12:15 pm
Considering that many of Europe’s leaders are conservatives, it will be no surprise if they trey to embarrass Obama. The screaming crowds of hundreds of thousands will be there.
Posted by: matt | March 31, 2009, 12:17 pm 12:17 pm
turn his jet around….puhlease…he is traveling with a 500+ entourage, 200 are secret service…
Posted by: samhiguchi | March 31, 2009, 12:21 pm 12:21 pm
Within his first 100 words he will say “We inherited this”.
Right or wrong, he’s going to say it.
Posted by: vinman | March 31, 2009, 12:22 pm 12:22 pm
Fran, ca:”Turn Obama’s jet around. Do whatever he has to do via satelite and video.”
Don’t be absurd. I think it’s a pretty bipartisan sentiment that the President of the United States is not to be cowed by a few minor riots (or as the French refer to them, “Monday”).
Posted by: jhw539 | March 31, 2009, 12:24 pm 12:24 pm
You really meant to say he is now the face of the new American socialism. See, they are all together now, the old European socialism, the Chinese commies, and here comes PB0 riding on the lobbyist’s UFO (Utopian Force One). He just finished lobbying at home. It’s time to lobby the world.
Posted by: two cats | March 31, 2009, 12:31 pm 12:31 pm
“Yes, we will,” Christine Lagarde told “Hardtalk.
It’s going to be a battle royale – the Yes We Cans vs. Yes We Wills………..
Posted by: Sigmond | March 31, 2009, 12:37 pm 12:37 pm
Be Safe President Obama!
Posted by: Angie In PA | March 31, 2009, 12:42 pm 12:42 pm
“Within his first 100 words he will say “We inherited this”.
Right or wrong, he’s going to say it.”
He’s right, and for the purpose of instilling confidence in the new, it’s important to note. And confidence is monumentally important. And it’s worth reiterating, he’s right.
Posted by: silky | March 31, 2009, 12:45 pm 12:45 pm
Interesting, I thought Obama’s mere megastar presence was supposed to have the world loving America! Opps!!!!!
Posted by: Mike_C | March 31, 2009, 12:49 pm 12:49 pm
“Within his first 100 words he will say “We inherited this”.
Right or wrong, he’s going to say it.”
He’s right, and for the purpose of instilling confidence in the new, it’s important to note. And confidence is monumentally important. And it’s worth reiterating, he’s right.
————————————-
silky,
He had better leave out the part about Summers’ & Geitner’s roles in all this mess.
Posted by: Mike_C | March 31, 2009, 12:53 pm 12:53 pm
“Interesting, I thought Obama’s mere megastar presence was supposed to have the world loving America! Opps!!!!!”
No, “the world” rejoiced over the thought of having a rational man in the White House, not over any specific policy. Also, “the world” is made up of more than the 20 men who make up the G-20 and their entourages.
Posted by: silky | March 31, 2009, 12:55 pm 12:55 pm
But Sarkosy won’t walk away until his wife gets in a photo with Obama & Michelle.
You will not hear one European leader say “We inherited this”.
Posted by: Sally J | March 31, 2009, 12:56 pm 12:56 pm
“silky,
He had better leave out the part about Summers’ & Geitner’s roles in all this mess.”
Considering it’s negligible, that’s fine with me.
Posted by: silky | March 31, 2009, 12:56 pm 12:56 pm
It will be quite humorous to see Obama needing a teleprompter every where he goes and the European leaders all talking off the cuff.
Posted by: Sally J | March 31, 2009, 12:58 pm 12:58 pm
Re-regulating the banking industry should be done right now. Start with quickly putting back the protections that were demolished with Phil Gramm’s Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, which stupidly removed the Depression-era laws that separated banking, insurance and brokerage activities. This law enabled the financial mess we are in to happen.
The French are correct in saying we need to clean up our financial laws. Until we do our banks won’t be trusted by investors here and abroad.
Posted by: Lydia | March 31, 2009, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
It is a shame what kind of leader we have now in the USA. I don’t blame the French president if he does walk out something they don’t agree with Obama. Obama does have a ‘lack’ of inexperience and leadership.
Posted by: anynomous | March 31, 2009, 1:13 pm 1:13 pm
Wonder if Obama has been learning some new foreign languages, as in how do you say “uh…uh…uh” in French, German and Italian.
Posted by: Will Stanton | March 31, 2009, 1:15 pm 1:15 pm
“It is a shame what kind of leader we have now in the USA. I don’t blame the French president if he does walk out something they don’t agree with Obama.”
Here we see the right wing hatred of Obama overcome long standing right wing hatred of France.
Didn’t think that was possible in a post-freedom fries era.
Posted by: Ryan C | March 31, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
This is going to be a cakewalk for
Obama and the media KNOWS it. They
know that this is a set-up to have
Obama “triumph” on the world stage.
All of this press pessimism is con-
trived to make their hero all the
more epic in stature when these
supposed schisms do NOT eventuate.
Betcha a failing bank that I’m right.
Posted by: Trajan | March 31, 2009, 1:41 pm 1:41 pm
Obama IS oil, just like his predecessors, the Bushies. Two Bush presidents, defense and CIA chiefs sit on the Carlyle 0roup board with reps from Saudi Oil, the family of Osama bin Laden. Top spy agents and defense dept working with Saudis to share top secret information for the benefit of allm. Every gets rich on oil and war related defense contract.
No wonder Saudis were not attacked even though 11 of 13 9/11 hijackers were Saudis
Posted by: OIL | March 31, 2009, 2:11 pm 2:11 pm
Taxing the people to enrich the few is the worst form of tyranny. It is debt-enslavement, and it is Oligarchy. Whether the rich are the millionaire and billionaire bankers who destroyed our financial system or the millionaire politicians of both parties who are now corrupting our democracy in order to protect their own wealth and the wealth of the very rich people who financed their campaigns, they have one shared goal: to protect, expand, and enhance their own wealth, power, and influence.
Posted by: tyrany | March 31, 2009, 2:19 pm 2:19 pm
Don’t doubt that Sarkozy will do whatever it takes to strike back at the absolutely abysmal state he finds himself in at home.
Posted by: dada | March 31, 2009, 2:52 pm 2:52 pm
“Tim Geithner’s new nominee for number two at the Treasury Department, Neal Wolin, played a key role in drafting legislation in the late 1990s deregulating the banking system, a former Treasury Department official confirms to us. The law that Wolin helped draft has been blamed by some critics, many of them Democrats, for easing up regulatory pressure on huge financial institutions, tangentially helping create today’s mess — and his role drafting it could come under questioning at his upcoming confirmation hearings.”
======================================
Treasury is going to have expert help in deregulation.
Posted by: mad | March 31, 2009, 3:42 pm 3:42 pm
He has the advantage of being Obama and the disadvantage of being the U.S. President.
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | March 31, 2009, 4:34 pm 4:34 pm