G20 Meeting; Another Photo Opp Or Real Results?

After my first reading of the official G20 communiqué, which can be read here, I said to myself that this is a typical one - an agreement on broad principles but not much agreement on specifics. In fact, Brazil’s finance minister, Guido Mantega, said on the eve of the meeting in Paris that "the G20 group of big economies must tackle the causes of global economic imbalances instead of getting bogged down in debating how to measure the problem." Yes like always the communiqué is written before the actual meeting.

Interestingly, upon rereading the communiqué, I see that it wasn't just targeted to China but also the US. In paragraph 3 of the communiqué, subsection (i) (public debt and fiscal deficits) is targeted to the Americans while subsection (ii) (the external imbalance composed of the trade balance and net investment income flows and transfers) is target towards China. In other words, the rest of the world has had enough of China's unfair currency policy and America's irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy.