http://www.undiplomatic.net/2009/03/31/london-calling/ Bringing foreign policy back, girl. Those other countries don't know how to act. Mon, 21 May 2012 18:47:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://www.undiplomatic.net/2009/03/31/london-calling/#comment-20512 Chris Larson Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:40:51 +0000 http://www.undiplomatic.net/?p=2931#comment-20512 The big political problem almost all governments of export-oriented economies have is that their main export market is generally the US, so economically they need US domestic consumption to grow for their export economies to recover. Germany and China can argue that more regulation of financial markets is needed (which may be true, and will certainly play well to domestic political audiences), but that is really beside the point, since more regulation will not cause the US consumer to buy made-in-China clothes, toys, and electronics, and German cars and sneakers. Many G20 countries have an interest in stimulating US consumer demand, so it will be interesting to see for how long politically self-serving positions hold before economic realities set it. The big political problem almost all governments of export-oriented economies have is that their main export market is generally the US, so economically they need US domestic consumption to grow for their export economies to recover. Germany and China can argue that more regulation of financial markets is needed (which may be true, and will certainly play well to domestic political audiences), but that is really beside the point, since more regulation will not cause the US consumer to buy made-in-China clothes, toys, and electronics, and German cars and sneakers. Many G20 countries have an interest in stimulating US consumer demand, so it will be interesting to see for how long politically self-serving positions hold before economic realities set it.

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