By
Nick Beams
13 May 2013
A meeting of G-7 finance ministers held outside London over the weekend was marked by widening differences over economic policy and concerns about the implications of the “quantitative easing” monetary policies of the world’s major central banks.
The differences over economic policy are being fuelled by the fact that almost five years since the global financial crisis erupted, the world economy, far from showing any signs of a sustained recovery, evinces deepening recessionary trends.
This has led to a situation in which each of the G-7 major powers–Britain, the US, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Japan–is more and more openly and aggressively pushing an agenda that reflects its own national interests.
The meeting was convened by the current G-7 chairman Britain, somewhat surprisingly given that the G-20 had met in Washington little more than a month ago. The weekend meeting was viewed as a less formal gathering.
But the semi-formal character of the gathering and the absence of a final communiqué meant that the differences could emerge somewhat more clearly than otherwise might have been the case.
Before the meeting got underway, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew criticised the Europeans for their failure to revive the euro zone economy and repeated American demands that they somewhat ease their budget-cutting.
“We feel very strongly there needs to be a right balance between austerity and growth,” he said in a television interview. “Overall, Europe is going to need to do a little bit better. There’s room for progress.”
This brought the critical remark from Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty that “some” in the G-7 have “ambiguous positions”. He added, “The Americans need to be more clear where they stand on this. They seem to be wanting to encourage growth more than fiscal responsibility.”
The US, however, is not a champion of fiscal expansion–the Obama administration has deepened spending cuts that are severely impacting widening sections of the American population. But it regards European austerity measures, and the resulting recession across the continent, as an impediment to US exports and growth prospects.
America’s chief opponent in Europe is Germany and clashes between the two powers during last month’s spring meeting of the
This article originally appeared on : World Socialist Web Site