Amid rising nationalism, the G7 is in desperate need of a global mindset
Kevin Rafferty says the clubby grouping, which notably excludes China and India, could do with a shake-up at its upcoming meeting, and Barack Obama is best placed to drive change
So-called leaders of the so-called “free world” are getting ready again to waste millions of dollars of taxpayers’ hard-earned money, not to speak of disrupting traffic and posing security problems for ordinary people, in yet another of their circus shows demonstrating their incompetence.
It is time for the annual get-together of the Group of Seven, this year in Ise-Shima, Japan. The only hope is that US President Barack Obama will make one final effort to leave a legacy, not to save the world (a faint dream) but to see that the G7 has some semblance of world vision before his own country tears apart the global architecture, with devastating consequences.
G7 sidesteps gaps on policy and turns attention to fighting terrorism and tax evasion
Modern money is being managed like a mutant Ponzi scheme
Finance chiefs are trapped by the unprecedented economic circumstances where throwing trillions of dollars of quantitative easing has failed to boost growth, and by the failures of their political leaders who lack both imagination and guts. The underlying problem is that we live in an increasingly globalising world, but few political leaders understand or care about issues beyond their own backyard.
Right across Europe, populists and nationalists are rising as if they have all had lobotomies to erase the bloody memories of wars from their consciousness.
As Europe discovers, there’s no ignoring the clash of values that comes with a refugee influx
In the US, the demagogic rise of Donald Trump threatens so many of the limited global achievements, including trade openness and baby steps to repair the fragile environment.
