By BosNewsLife Bureaus
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (BosNewsLife)– World leaders meeting in London pledged on Thursday, April 2, a whopping $1.1 trillion to global institutions such as the International Monetary Fund to combat the global economic crisis, prompting investors to buy up stocks while the Dow Industrials in New York surged over 8,000 for the first time in two months.
United States President Barack Obama said the measures announced at the just-completed Group of 20 Nations summit, which was held amid deadly protests, would be a “turning point” in worldwide economic recovery. He stressed leaders were able to overcome “honest disagreements” and reach agreements to “boost” economic growth, job creation, and lending to troubled nations.
France President Nicolas Sarkozy had threatened to walk out if the London conference would fail to produce a hard global rulebook on capitalism. He eventually decided to stay, after Britain the United States and others agreed on more oversight.
The G20 leaders pledged to keep closer watch over banks, hedge funds, credit rating agencies, and executive pay, after excesses by financial firms played a role in the economic crisis. They also promised to take action against countries that provide tax havens for the wealthy and to set up an international watchdog group to warn of problems in the global financial system.
And, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the G20 will make over $1 trillion available to the IMF to boost the international economy and help developing countries.
CONTROVERSIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
The G20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, Britain, the United States and the European Union.
Yet, their announcement wasn’t welcomed by demonstrators protesting capitalism, who earlier attacked banks amid reports that one man was found dead after collapsing at a protest camp near the Bank of England. Police told reporters Thursday, April 2, that bottles were thrown at them while they attempted to treat him. He was later pronounced dead after being taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
Police also vowed to track down and prosecute those who attacked officers and stormed a bank during a day of unrest in the City of London, where riot police had to be sent in after activists broke into a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland Wednesday, April 1.
A handful of people with black scarves obscuring their faces and hoods over their heads smashed a hole in the windows with a metal pole and crawled in, television footage showed.
MIXED REACTIONS
However investors in New York were more positive, buying stocks with renewed commitment, said Eric Ross, director of research at brokerage Canaccord Adams, and world market indicators soared more than three percent. “Everyone is in a buying mood. Everyone is feeling good. … A lot of this is simply confidence,” he told The Associated Press news agency.
In addition, a Commerce Department report claimed orders to factories improved in February for the first time in seven months.
But analysts cautioned that the number of Americans seeking jobless benefits last week climbed to the highest level in 26 years, providing a reminder that unemployment will keep mounting long after the economy stabilizes.
Initial jobless claims swelled by 12,000 to 669,000 in the week ended March 28, the most since 1982, the Labor Department said in a statement published by Bloomberg news agency in Washington Thursday, April 2. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos in Europe and reporting from the United States. BosNewsLife’s NEWS WATCH is a regular look at key news developments impacting the Church and/or compassionate professionals).
