G20 IN - G8 Out: Saviour or Evil Power Influencing Economy?

Together, the G20 member countries represent around 90% of global gross national product, 80% of world trade and two-thirds of the world's population.

The G20 member states have reportedly agreed that the group will replace the G8 as the main coordinating body for global financial issues. The G20 leaders are in Pittsburgh, the US for a two-day summit.

APTN, citing a White House fact sheet, reports that the move initiated by President Barack Obama will be announced on Friday.

...The G20 leaders seem to be a lot more positive now since the signs of economic recovery can already be seen. However, in the draft communiqué they pledged to keep stimulus packages in place until a recovery is secured.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday confirmed the Group of Eight summit originally planned for June 2010 in Huntsville, Ont., will now be expanded to include a second meeting with leaders of major developing economies who are part of the larger G20.

The announcement came following an agreement reached among leaders of the world's largest developed and developing economies to make the Group of 20 the main international body addressing global economic conditions.

President Medvedev has been among the first to arrive in Pittsburgh, where ahead of the summit he found time to talk to students on a wide range of issues at the city's main university.

“We are all different, and that is good. But we have common values, which is even better,” he said while addressing students.

While answering questions from the university students, Dmitry Medvedev yold what he believes is the most important thing in life.

“Love! What can be more important?!” Medvedev said.

“Love towards people closest to you, those who are near. To my mind, it’s in line with any commandments – both moral and religious. It is the sense of life. Each of us understands the world differently, but it is probably the most important thing in life.”

Medvedev’s speech at Pittsburgh University seems to be a historic event by itself, since Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited this university and made an address this very day exactly 50 years ago, in 1959.

‘Mr Medvedev, like myself, is a leader of the present and of the future.’

Central bankers, after all, as well as the heads of all international financial institutions (IMF, WTO, World Bank), are not elected into their positions, but rather selected by heads of state.

Given the atmosphere of total secrecy and security at these events, a very strong impression is created that these international summits between the bankers and political leaders are only concerned with further enriching the fat cats of the corporate world. In other words, what is good for the rich will ultimately benefit the poor, even if it may take a few more centuries.

“This is where the G-20 totally fails the democracy litmus test,” says Shawna Taylor, a spokesperson with Code Pink, a group that draws attention to the plight of females in wartime. “They talk about open dialogue, yet they fence off the entire city of Pittsburgh so that just the chosen few can speak their minds.”