G-20 Sarkozy Walkout Threat: Barack Obama Conciliatory

Telegraph:

If Mr Sarkozy's strident demands for a new, restrictive regulatory structure were not met then he would leave an "empty chair", the French president's finance minister warned, hours before President Barack Obama arrived in London to meet Gordon Brown before the start of the summit on the global economic crisis.

"President Sarkozy was very clear on that front, he said if the deliverables are not there, I won't sign the communique," Christine Lagarde said. "It means walking away. I think he's very determined."

Read the whole story: Telegraph

Comments

[Pulemerci]

Maureen Dowd said that something's up when the Europeans tell Obama he too much of a socialist. Now Sarkozy wants him to rein in spending? What gives?

[eden4barack08]

Where does it say that Sarkozy wants him to rein in spending??
Sarkozy only wants MEGA regulations!

[senorlou]

Oooooo.....a socialist! Oh no!
We just peed all over the world economy with Bushie boy at the wheel. This can't happen ever again, so the Europeans - along with the rest of the world - want some serious regulations. The "free" market turned out to be the phony market. A lot of us aren't surprised.

[Pulemerci]

Exactly how did we pee all over the world economy with President Bush at the wheel?

[senorlou]

This is a surprise. Didn't see this one coming. I wonder what it was that made the French mad at the US? Maybe it was the trashing of the global economy by looting and pillaging corporations like pirates, and building a phony economy based on home loans that could never, ever be paid back? Remember? Our American banks bundled them into financial "products" and sold them around the world. Iceland really loved those! Or maybe it was the Iraq war that the French warned us not to get into? You remember that. The French said it was a bad idea, and it would be a disaster that would cost a trillion dollars. Remember what we did when they said that? We told them to bite us. We started calling french fries "freedom fries." We called them Frogs. Bush and Jacques Chirac wouldn't even speak a word between each other. I remember all those jokes the guys on Fox News would say about the French losing wars. That was really funny.
Obama is going to Europe to take our spanking from the entire world for us. He doesn't deserve it, but he'll deal with it. The rest of this country, those who jumped on the French/ German/ rest of the world bashing bandwagon that went on during the W. Bush tragedy, should feel ashamed of themselves, if they have any sense. Good for them that most of them don't. Ignorance is bliss.

[KofTX]

I would just like to add that U.S. banks didn't invent risky financial instruments such as the Credit Default Swap. That was the Chinese. And remember, European banks own a large percentage of our Federal Reserve Bank. The bought, sold and traded derivatives just like our banks. It is, at the very least, misleading to place ALL the blame squarely upon the U.S.

[senorlou]

Who repealed the glass - Steagal (however you spell it) act? Wasn't it Phil Gramm and some other pirates who created some new law to legalize flim-flam on Wall St.? Yep, everybody knows it's us. Some others took part in it because our rating services labelled these financial "products" (doo doo) with the highest ratings possible. It was a nasty thing to do to the rest of the world. They're a little pissed.
Oh yeah - China. China will force school children to make fireworks at their desks during school time (not kidding, one school blew up). They sell us poisonous plastic toys to give our kids. So yeah, figures we'd be in cahoots with a country like that.

[Paul Hackett]

True, the European banks behaved like sailors on shore leave and their directors should, in all seriousness, be in jail just as the heads of our banks should be. Having said that, the instruments were under the control of American regulatory agencies and the EU repeatedly tried to get Bush to place better regulatory controls over banks and derivatives over the past five years. Unfortunately a deal was made with the EU the uphsoot of which was that serious bank regulation was tossed aside. You can read the details of how this happened and much more that led to the crisis in Matt Taibbi's brilliantly written piece in Rolling Stone:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover

[AtheistUS]

Good comment, I am mostly agree with you.

Sarkozy is of course not mad at US, it is well known that he actually loves US - but he wants to do right thing now - establish strict regulations that would defend World finance system from a next robbery.

[KofTX]

Yeah RIGHT...

Sarkozy is blowing a bunch of hot air. In the end, all of the EU's country's citizens would elect President Obama over all of their leaders. Politics is always local. No one wants to be considered unfriendly to President Obama. This ain't the Bush years anymore.

[Paul Hackett]

You may find that not everyone follows the cult of personality as slavishly as you do, least of all the citizens of Europe.

[senorlou]

The USA is the root of this financial disaster, and the world knows it. Bush and his sick freaks tossed a hand grenade in the machinery. This country runs on pure greed and fear. Everybody has their money in a 401K - but do they know what these companies are doing? Do they understand globalization? Do they give a crap about the people living on slave wages making plastic poisonous crap for their amusement? Do they realize that a corporation's stock value can go up when they fire a few hundred people? Are they OK knowing that they've invested in cigarettes, heavy weapons, and phony mortgages? Americans are at the top of this compost heap. We deserve some scorn. We earned it. The rest of the world knows we're frauds. Well, now it's time for us to show them:
1. We're sorry
2. We won't do it again

We have to really, really make sure about #2. The GOP needs to be put back in the basement. If it ever comes out again, it needs to be shot up with tranquilzers at the very least. I mean, we've got to get these Republicans to read books without pictures too. Basically, it's time to kiss some butt.

[AtheistUS]

Yes, it is time for us to get sober and reasonable, you got it right.

[pangurban]

Did you ever what the righties who post her look like?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ouxxa0eFam8/SSY9NzLHZBI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/GxbAdyKmTUU/s400/Arbus.jpg

[gotalifepost]

The President wants regulations too french fry.

[Paul Hackett]

Is that why every single person he has appointed to the Treasury and Bailout programs from Geithner and Summers on down are all people with a history of pushing for the deregulation of the banking industry and the derivatives markets? Just curious.

[KillBillV2]

Why are people saying that Carla Bruni doesn't want to go to London because she doesn't want to be compared next to Michelle Obama? Is it true or not?

[senorlou]

Yeah, she's afraid that Michelle's inner strength and beautty, plus those curvy, child-bearing hips, might make her aura a little more mauve than it usually is this time of year. Sorry, I had to do it. Peace.

[palmseast]

Well, it would be ironic and not a favorable contrast to western conservative "values" - after all, it's the white woman there who has the bastard child while the black woman is the model of the happily married wife with 2.5 kids. It would rock their world too much.

[AllenD]

France seems to have part of their national genome the ability to be obnoxious grandstanding pr*cks for no apparent reason. There is no reason for Sarkozy to act in this manner before even meeting Obama. If he wants to leave and make it the G-19, fine, France will not be missed. Also I fail to understand the European objection to stimulus in favor of regulation. Since when were the two mutually exclusive?

[KillgoreTrout43]

Stimulus is not regulation. Stimulus is a life saving manuever. It regulates nothing, so far.

[AllenD]

The point I was trying to make is that you can have a stimulus program to get the economy growing while also passing regulations to prevent a repeat of the abuses. Why can't the Europeans grasp this simple idea?

[Paul Hackett]

Yes, they were such obnoxious pr*cks as you say when they tried to explain to us that going into Iraq was a terrible idea, sending over their obnoxious minister Dominique DeVillepain to the UN to explain it all in detailed language. What jerks. Thanks God Bush, Cheney and Rummy didn't listen to those garlic eating frogs for even a second.

[KofTX]

And they deserve some kind of special credit for that? I mean come on...PRETTY MUCH EVERY COUNTRY'S GOVERNMENT HAD A BETTER TRACK RECORD THAN GEORGE BUSH'S ADMINISTRATION.

This is a new administration with a new perspective on foreign and domestic policy.

[theMightyT]

dance, puppets, dance...

too funny.

[PeacefulRevolution]

So true.

[antinjust]

hi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA7yz2vciGk

[speciallady2003]

new main

[zius]

Woo Hoo!!

[sacrebleu]

"la chaise vide ?"

Ne me faites pas rire ! Ce n'est rien qu'une MENACE vide.

[speciallady2003]

C'est vrai. L'arme secrète française.

[KeepMeLearning]

Oui—la tête vide…

[PerfectSense]

Obama's trip to Europe is history in the making.
By the end of the week, Obama will one of the few leaders in history to surrender to France.

[bronzy]

What a backside you are!

[KDH]

You are NoneSense.

[postman606]

You here some pre-game chatter and proceed to make no sense at all.

[Paul Hackett]

If Sarkozy can get Obama to finally regulate Wall Street, the investment banks and the hedge funds he'd have done you a bigger favor than you ever could know.

[palmseast]

Obama certainly doesn't need lessons in economics from conservative Euro politicians be it Sarkozy nor your Cameron or wherever you're from. That would be like trusting the henhouse to a bunch of practiced foxes.

[ekoorb]

Well now you've ruined it by giving away the ending.

[MizTraci]

New main.

[palmseast]

Considering it was Sarkozy himself who not long ago when he came into office was singing the praises of American style capitalism and implicitly of the Bush admin - how many weeks did he spend on his vacation with Bush up in Maine? - what we have is an opportunist in the Elysee Palace who would probably sell his own mother down the river for a single vote. What a statesman and genius -- he has no problem in pandering to the true culprit of all this mess, but when its inheritor comes to Europe to try and start cleaning it up he's already threatening to walk out! I say, go ahead - walk out. You are part of the left-over problem after all.

[Paul Hackett]

Sarkozy IS an opportunist as well as being something of a fool, however your post is utter nonsense. Obama has demonstrated repeatedly with his Treasury Department and other appointments that he has zero interest in placing any real regulatory requirements on the investment banks or derivatives markets. His nominee for chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Genslery is an ex-Goldman Sachs banker who lobbied for deregulation!

If you're a loyal supporter of Obama you need to send him a message that this crap will not wash. Our treasury department has been hijacked by Goldman Sachs and they are hoping that people will just sit back and let it happen since Obama is so popular.

I suggest you read these two articles:

rollingsto­ne.com/pol­itics/stor­y/26793903­/the_big_t­akeover

theatlanti­c.com/doc/­200905/imf­-advice

[Ping]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/08/12/bush_hosts_sarkozy_at_maine_compound/

[palmseast]

I stated facts, you state speculation. I'm not a "loyal supporter" of Obama (among the things you misread, nor anyone else, including Clinton Robots...) , on the other hand I really don't care what Rolling Stone has to opine on the subject, unless you think their crystal ball is infallible.