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U.N. panel proposes replacing G20
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz
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Bob Moon: The top industrial governments, the G20, will be meeting in London next week. But is there a better way to keep watch over the global economy? A United Nations advisory panel of international economists is suggesting replacing the Group of 20 nations with a U.N. body for dealing with global financial policy. Christopher Werth reports from London.
Christopher Werth: The plan put forward by a U.N. advisory panel headed by Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz proposes a new Global Economic Council. Stiglitz told The Financial Times that global response to the economic crisis should be more representative than the current G20. He placed the new council's size at roughly 20 to 25 members.
The plan also calls for replacing many of the functions that the International Monetary Fund handles. The panel would like to see developed countries devote at least 1 percent of their fiscal stimulus packages for assistance to developing countries. And it supports the creation of a global reserve for helping those nations during a crisis, but without many of the restrictions on government spending that the IMF places on the countries that receive its funds.
It's uncertain how seriously the proposal for replacing the G20 will be taken. The plan will go before the U.N.'s general assembly this week. Members of the G20 themselves will have the opportunity on the new proposal on April 2.
In London, I'm Christopher Werth for Marketplace.
I don’t think the corporate empires will watch their vital instrument, IMF, decommissioned with out a fight. The timing is intriguing though. Corporations and the IMF are weakened by the economic meltdown. So the UN may have a chance to take down IMF now. Slay the monster when it is down.
What Prof. Stiglitz's panel should be recommending is research and planning for a Single Global Currency, to be managed by a Global Central Bank within a Global Monetary Union. Why not expand upon what we alredy know about monetary unions and create a new Global Monetary Union. That is, we can eliminate currency risk, global imbalances, currency fluctuations, currency crises and the need for foreign exchange reserves by expanding and merging the currencies of nations and existing monetary unions into a Global Monetary Union. If 16 countries can use a common currency, why not 192? We already know how to do this work.
