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The precious summit

DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images Is it just me, or does French President Nicolas Sarkozy sound a little like Gollum in this quote about a planned summit to restructure the world’s financial architecture? Europe wants the summit before the end of the year… Europe wants it. Europe demands it. Europe will get it.” We wants it! In ...

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592010_081017_sarko5.jpg
592010_081017_sarko5.jpg

DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images

DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images

Is it just me, or does French President Nicolas Sarkozy sound a little like Gollum in this quote about a planned summit to restructure the world’s financial architecture?

Europe wants the summit before the end of the year… Europe wants it. Europe demands it. Europe will get it.”

We wants it! In all seriousness, smart people have been saying for a long time — way before the current mess — that the framework put in place at Bretton Woods in 1944 is woefully obsolete.

But I’m not sure that Sarko, an old-school economic nationalist in liberal clothing, is the guy I’d want leading the charge. And how much confidence would Americans have in any decisions George W. Bush makes at this point? My take: it would be better to leave any grand, sweeping changes to No. 44.

Tags: Economics, Finance and Banking, France, International Organizations

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