The UN Regulating Economies

Here's a test that we should all dread for the Obamateur. His first real deal with the UN.

A week before President Barack Obama joins the largest developing and industrialized countries’ finance ministers and heads of state in London, the U.N. has issued its economic recommendations.

The bottom line: A drastic overhaul will be necessary to pull the world out of the recession, according to the Commission of Experts on Reforms of International Finance and Economic Structures, chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics. But that's easier said than done.

At the upcoming summit, the Obama administration is expected to urge more fiscal stimulus programs; China and the U.N. are urging a move away from the dollar; and the European community wants more financial regulation. Even within the European Union, major differences abound.

Last week, the current EU President, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek called the Obama administration’s programs the “road to hell.” And, the U.N.-China proposal to replace the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency may be sidelined at the summit, according to Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

At the U.N. this week, Stiglitz was clear that the U.N. panel believes that regulation must be comprehensive.

This should be pretty simple. We don't trust the US government with running or regulating anything efficiently, why would we trust a group that has a far worse record? Why should we even contemplate giving economic voice to countries that tamper with their economy more than we do. (Yes, we tamper far far too much with our economy now, or haven't you been watching?)

I wish there were more details about exactly what their plan is and how it would be implemented. I suppose I need to do some more reading.