Finance ministers meet ahead of G-20

TEXT OF STORY

Steve Chiotakis: There’s a whole lot of government work going on to get the global economy back on track. Not only here in the United States, but all around the world. U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was at a finance ministers’ gathering near London over the weekend. It was a “starter meeting” of sorts to the G-20 financial summit set for the U.K. next month. While there wasn’t much expected, officials did agree to work together on addressing the core problems of the global financial fallout. From London, Christopher Werth explains.

Christopher Werth: Finance ministers agreed that removing toxic assets from banks’ balance sheets is a “key priority.” Otherwise fiscal measures to stimulate economies of the world could fall flat. There have been previous attempts to deal with toxic assets, such as the initial plan for the Toxic Asset Relief Program, but they were never implemented.

David Buik of BGC Partners says a unified, international approach from the G-20 is ideal:

David Buik: I think if it were done on a global basis, I think the effect of being able to net off the toxic assets between banks would be very complimentary. But I’ve got a funny feeling it may end up being: we have to do this, but each country has to do it according to what its requirements are.

Those requirements should become more clear this week. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to reveal a more detailed outline of his proposal for using public-private partnerships for dealing with those bad assets.

In London, I’m Christopher Werth for Marketplace.