Reply #7: Bush resists European calls for state intervention

[ozymandius]

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has used the financial crisis and the absence of leadership in the United States during the presidential elections to claim a role for himself as a savior of the financial system.

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In his role as the current holder of the European Union's rotating presidency, Sarkozy has teamed with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to push for reforms to the world's financial architecture. The two also have taken the lead on European measures to stabilize banks and try to restore confidence to markets.

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In his Sarkozy's view, what is needed is nothing less than a new version of the 1944 Bretton Woods conference that brought together Allied leaders and established a post-World War II global monetary and financial order, laying foundations for the International Monetary Fund and a currency exchange regime that lasted for three decades.

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EU leaders will call on Saturday's summit to agree immediately on five principles: submit ratings agencies to more surveillance; align accounting standards; close loopholes; set banking codes of conduct to reduce excessive risk-taking; and ask the International Monetary Fund to suggest ways of calming the turmoil.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/14/america/NA-US...