G7 leaders to hold emergency conference call
Jeremy Hobson: The world’s seven leading industrialized nations are holding an emergency conference call today. Finance chiefs including U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will be on the line, and the topic of discussion will be new fears about the European debt crisis.
The BBC’s Steve Evans joins us now from Berlin. Good morning.
Steve Evans: Good morning.
Hobson: So Steve, what are the expectations of the big G7 phone meeting today?
Evans: I think the expectation is that the North Americans — the Canadians, the U.S. — will say to Europe, look this is serious and you need to be doing more. All the signs are from Washington that they are not happy with the pace at which events seem to be unfolding and running away from the authorities, but also unhappy at European attempts to get a grip on this thing. These things are not normally made public, but this time people are saying, there’s a phone meeting today, there’s a conference call today. That’s because the Canadians in particular, they want to let the Europeans know that things need to be sorted out.
Hobson: And Steve, is there any chance that there is going to be more stimulus that comes out of this meeting?
Evans: No, I don’t think so. They are preparing ground, there’s no sense at all in Berlin that the Germans are moving towards stimulus. What you might get is a belief in Berlin that long-term structures need to be changed. There needs to be more coordination between the countries of Europe and their fiscal policy, their banking regulation, and when that happens, then maybe, more money can be pooled. But we are talking years away, renegotiating treaties is not something you do in one year or even two.
Hobson: The BBC’s Steve Evans joining us from Berlin. Thank you so much, Steve.
Evans: You’re welcome.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
