British PM Brown, host of summit: 'Markets need morals'
LONDON -- As the bad economic news piles up, the host of this week's G-20 summit was casting the mission in moral tones.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown went to St. Paul's Cathedral Tuesday to speak to religious and civic leaders about the need for the world's financial systems to behave like average families.
"Markets need morals," Brown said. "The first financial crisis of the global age has confirmed the enduring importance of the most timeless of truths — that our financial system must be founded on the very same values that are at the heart of our family lives, neighborhoods and communities."
Brown faces the prospect of diminished returns at Thursday's summit of the G-20, which together represent 85% of the world's economy.
Where once he called for a global "new deal," he is confronted with disagreements among participants on issues ranging from further economic stimulus to increased financial regulation.
President Obama left for Europe Tuesday with his own agenda to tackle the global financial meltdown.
It's Obama's first trip overseas since taking office. The meeting of the world's economic powers marks 60 years since the alliance was founded to blunt Soviet aggression in Europe.
New studies out Tuesday confirmed the depth of the global crisis.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a global organization based in Paris, reported that economic output will drop by 4% to 7% in the United States, Japan and Europe, sending unemployment above 10% by the end of 2010. And the World Bank reduced this year's estimated growth rate for developing nations from 4.5% to 2.1%.
"I believe that the unsupervised globalization of our financial markets did not only cross national boundaries, it cross moral boundaries too," Brown said Tuesday. "And so our task today is to bring our financial markets into closer alignment with the values held by families and business people across our country."
The meeting is drawing protesters from around the region.
On Tuesday, protesters sat down for tea, cake and cookies outside the Bank of England for what they vow will be a noisy, angry reception for Obama and other leaders attending the summit.
The handful of demonstrators said they hoped many more would join them Wednesday, which has been dubbed "Financial Fools Day" by demonstrators.
"I think thousands of people are going to come onto the streets," said Marina Pepper, 41, a former model turned politician and environmental campaigner. "Bring your own tea."
Police have said they face an "unprecedented" security challenge from the presence of a score of world leaders alongside thousands of anti-capitalist, environmental and other demonstrators protesting the impact of the economic meltdown.
Worried by the ever-present threat of terrorist attacks as well as by the protests, authorities say they will have thousands of officers on duty, some armed with stun guns. Patrol boats will ply the River Thames and divers will scour the water for bombs.
Brown said Tuesday that police "will act very quickly if there is any threat to property or people."
"No violence can be tolerated, no intimidation of people is allowed," Brown told breakfast television program GMTV.
On Wednesday, demonstrators from a group called G-20 Meltdown plan to converge from four London subway stations on the imposing edifice of the Bank of England, led by multicolored figures representing four horsemen of the economic apocalypse — war, climate chaos, financial crimes and "land enclosures and borders."
Contributing: Associated Press