Time changes, people change, economies change and the powers wielded by countries change. There was a time when Britain ruled half the world, today its nowhere. There was a time when the US was the undisputed economic champion, today that aura is on the wane.
Its in these changing times we wonder if a group that consists of countries like Italy, Canada etc wield any power when the world is going throught the worst recession (courtesy the developed countries). Of course the US, Japan and Germany are also a part of the G-7 group of countries, but do they really have any clout? The G-7 as usual came out with a statement asking China to re-value it currency and hardly anyone cared a hoot.
After decades in charge, the club of rich, industrialised nations is fast losing sway as a share of global economic power shifts towards big developing countries. That was a lesson of the Group of Seven’s meeting in Istanbul at the weekend, when the absence of China showed the G7 could no longer tackle the world’s economic problems on its own.
Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G7 implored China in a diplomatically worded statement to let the Chinese currency rise, as they have done for several years. But China showed no sign of complying, and the G7 spent much of its time to discussing whether it should meet less often, with less pomp and perhaps with fewer public statements.
G7 statements have all too often “interested nobody because there’s no follow-up most of the time”, said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund.
Read the full article here
The G-7 or the group of Industrialized countries comprise
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States
The G-20 comprises of
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, European Union
A G-7 official hit the nail on the head when he mentioned
“The moment you have to tell people you are still relevant, it’s because you are not relevant,”
Above picture source: Astrocrush
+++
Alternate Investments 