Our global leaders all get together today with the Global Financial Crisis (yes, it’s still a crisis) topping the list for the 2nd year in a row.

Fresh from the UN general assembly in New York, heads of government and a vast diplomatic entourage will descend on Pittsburgh today to kick off two days of talks on economic stability, financial regulation, climate change and bankers’ bonuses. They will be greeted by boarded up shops and energetic protests.  On the eve of the summit, China indicated it was willing to countenance an initiative by President Barack Obama to smooth the flow of capital around the world in the hope of securing greater long-term economic stability.  The US proposal calls on rapidly expanding economies such as China, Brazil and India to boost domestic consumption in order to lower their trade surpluses, while the US and Europe would encourage more saving to reduce long-term budget deficits.  Gordon Brown yesterday (see UK protests in picture) backed the effort, saying he hoped “different continents can better work together to achieve the growth we need.“

Yes, like any addict we NEED growth.  Stability just won’t give us the fix we need as our entire global economy is based on borrowing to spend money we don’t have today in anticipation of being able to pay it off in the future, when things are “better.”  The fact that this has clearly not worked out at all for the past does not seem to deter our leaders.  In fact, in 2009, our pals in the G20 have borrowed an additional $5,365,000,000,0000 to see them over this little “rough patch” we’re having:

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This doen’t take into account the $6Tn worth of debt OBLIGATIONS taken on by our own Fed and Treasury, not to mention whatever nonsense the rest of the world is into – this is just the checks they wrote in excess of the cash that came in – and the year isn’t even over yet!    Now $5.3Tn may not seem like a lot to you but it is a 16% increase in total global debt in just 12 months.  In fact, according to the Global Debt Clock in the Economist, our friends in the G20 are on a path to increase our debt from a “mere” $30Tn last year all the way up to $45Tn in 2011.  That’s a 50% increase in just 3 years!  At that pace, by the time my…
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