The G-7 lowers expectations

This Friday, finance ministers from the G-7 countries will meet in southern France to grapple with the world’s financial turmoil. What to expect? Not much, one French source tells Reuters: Host country France is expected to indicate that different responses are appropriate in different countries to the latest crisis of confidence rocking world markets. "This ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

This Friday, finance ministers from the G-7 countries will meet in southern France to grapple with the world's financial turmoil. What to expect? Not much, one French source tells Reuters:

This Friday, finance ministers from the G-7 countries will meet in southern France to grapple with the world’s financial turmoil. What to expect? Not much, one French source tells Reuters:

Host country France is expected to indicate that different responses are appropriate in different countries to the latest crisis of confidence rocking world markets.

"This is not a G7 where we are expecting to prepare a formal communique," a French source said. "We are sticking to the blueprint of recent G7 meetings, which have been informal ones."

There are likely two reasons the G-7 meeting will be low-key, one substantive and one a matter of optics. First, it does not appear that consensus exists yet on any new coordinated strategy to deal with the Eurozone crisis. Second, the G-7 has been at pains to not step on the toes of the G-20, which has been designated the world’s preeminent forum for financial and economic coordination.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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