Stephens: How can the G20 help save the euro zone?
Distinguished fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and executive fellow at the School of Public Policy of the University of Calgary
The question presupposes that the G20 CAN save the Euro zone. It can’t, although it can make the situation worse by inaction. Unfortunately at this point in its existence, the G20 has little cohesion and is more of an episodic “crisis management” event than an institution that can really do anything substantive. Any substantive response will come from individual countries, hopefully via the IMF where some accepted groundrules apply, rather than the G20. But the G20 does have one advantage: it provides Canada with a ringside seat from which to watch Rome (and Athens, and Dublin…) burn, and a platform from which to lecture the Europeans on their perfidies. If only they all paid their taxes like WE do.
