Not much Happiness at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh September 24-25, 2009

With almost all press coverage of the G20 upstaged by the highly televised disclosure of Iran’s Uranium reprocessing facility,  it has been difficult to find out what actually happened in the meetings. The most reported outcome was that the G20 would become the main body for global economic consultation, with the G8 remaining for global strategic and security issues.

Find the official White House Leader’s Statement on the G20 here. http://www.pittsburghsummit.gov/mediacenter/129639.htm

Regarding restructuring global economies and institutions, it appears that nothing concrete was agreed upon, so it looks like business as usual. Nothing was done about curbing the incentives to short term individual gain (giant bonuses) in the financial institutions.

Nothing concrete was agreed regarding re-regulation of the financial institutions and strengthening regulatory agencies, except some small possible changes at the IMF.

On the Climate Change issues, preparatory to the Copenhagen meetings, there was a pledge to work to reduce the $300 Billion in government subsidies for fossil fuels over the medium term.

President Sarkozy of France had planned to introduce GNH indicator proposals at the meetings, but there was no mention in the final Leader’s statement.