Scoring the G20
What the Group of 20 leaders did and didn’t accomplish
The G20 summit in Washington Saturday “met the modest expectations” set for it, said The Washington Post in an editorial. The leaders of the 20 nations agreed to “a broad but fundamentally nonbinding agenda for overhauling financial market regulation”—a global clearinghouse for credit derivatives, a regulatory “college of supervisors,” a study group on executive pay—but left the details to a meeting in London next spring.
The “vaguely-worded commitments” did include some important concessions, notably from the U.S., said Sinclair Stewart in Canada’s The Globe and Mail, but “the more far-reaching consequences” of the summit can be found in its guest list. The landmark participation of countries like China, India, and Brazil—and their new economic leverage—is “a recognition that the pecking order has changed.”
Really, you could have stopped with China, said Niall Ferguson in The Washington Post. The China-U.S. relationship is “at the heart of this crisis,” and Barack Obama should schedule a G2 summit for Day 2 of his presidency. But those two countries can’t do it alone, and the G20 missed “a real opportunity” by not agreeing to coordinate monetary and fiscal policy.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Give the G20 leaders credit for their “united front” against protectionism, said China Daily in an editorial. They wisely saw that we won’t return to prosperity without free trade, and fair trade—but to get there we’ll need “a thorough overhaul of the international financial system.”
That’s why the G20 was “little more than a very expensive photo op,” said the United Arab Emirates’ Khaleej Times in an editorial. With no real agreements made, fixing the “current economic mess” now falls to the next summit, and the next U.S president.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
What's behind the scrapping of NHS England?
Today's Big Question Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting promise greater democratic control but there are whispers in Westminster that they have 'gone a bit Tory'
By Jamie Timson, The Week UK Published
-
Today's political cartoons - March 13, 2025
Cartoons Thursday's cartoons - White House Tesla dealership, nothing doing, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Adolescence: Stephen Graham's 'powerful', 'poignant' Netflix drama
The Week Recommends Four-parter about a father grappling with the horrific actions of his son is an 'arresting and disturbing watch'
By The Week UK Published