I thought that when the Group of 20 circus of finance ministers and central banker reached Russia on Feb. 15-16, it would presage six months of bizarre performances culminating in September with the grandest summit on earth in St. Petersburg. Given that Russia excels at circuses and that President Vladimir Putin is something of a showman in chief, it should have promised to be an exciting time.
But judging by the opening performance, the meeting of the finance ministers and central bank governors in Moscow, it threatens to be a total waste of time and money. Their six-page, 26-paragraph communique was full of woolly woffle. It claimed that "Thanks to the important policy actions in Europe, the U.S. and Japan, and the resilience of the Chinese economy, tail risks to the global economy have receded and financial market conditions have improved."
So bravo, then, our brave "Leaders" (who are always graced with a capital letter)? Not quite because the same self-congratulatory paragraph continued by admitting that hosts of risks remain, notably weak global growth and high unemployment: "The weak global performance derives from policy uncertainty, private deleveraging, fiscal drag, and impaired credit intermediation, as well as incomplete rebalancing of global demand."