What We’re Reading 3/4/09

Mar 4th, 2009 12:42 PM UTC
By Steve Wilson

Wall Street Journal—Crisis Reaching Poorest Nations, IMF Says
Twenty-two of the world’s poorest nations may need a total of $25 billion in additional funding this year, the International Monetary Fund said, as the global financial crisis sweeps into corners of the world, especially sub-Saharan Africa, that seemed largely insulated from international banking problems. After battering rich countries and wealthier developing nations, “a third wave from the global financial crisis is now hitting the world’s poorest, most vulnerable countries,” said IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Reuters—Recession compounds world food crisis: UN’s WFP
The global economic downturn has also compounded the food crisis, pushing more people over the brink of hunger and threatening stability around the world, the head of the United Nations’ food relief agency said yesterday. Food supplies are tight and expensive, and more people in poor countries are unable to afford what they need because of the recession, said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program. “I think the world would like to focus on one crisis at a time, but we really can’t afford to,” Sheeran said.

Financial Times—Brown wins Obama’s support for a shake-up of global regulation
Gordon Brown emerged from the Oval Office yesterday clutching the prized endorsement of Barack Obama for Britain’s “special relationship” with the US and support for his plan for a global regulatory shake-up and crackdown on offshore banking centers, writes the Financial Times.

Financial Times—Obama gives few clues to his world view ahead of summit
The Financial Times also writes that many outside the U.S. are concerned that President Obama has been paying scant attention to the global dimension of the financial meltdown, and that yesterday’s meeting with Gordon Brown may have gone only part of the way to allaying those anxieties. Yesterday’s meeting was President Obama’s fourth with a G20 leader, however, after those with Mexico, Canada and Japan. The president has also spoken on the telephone with most of the remaining 16. “The president has been engaging with the G20 leaders and others in the ramp-up to the London summit to develop a coordinated approach that aggressively addresses the global economic crisis,” says a senior administration official.

-Steve Wilson

TAGS: Policy News, What We're Reading