The G20 apparently turned Japanese and became a kind of Kyoto for deficits. Reports the Daily Telegraph:

“Our challenges are as diverse as our nations,” US President Barack Obama said. “But together we represent some 85 per cent of the global economy, and we have forged a coordinated response to the worst global economic crisis of our time.”

Up to a point, Lord Copper. In fact, only the US insisted that increasing government spending was a way out of the global financial crisis. And while the G20 all agreed to halve deficits by 2013, they also agreed they didn’t actually know how they’d do it. In other words, the leaders of G20 agreed to give themselves cover by promising to do something none of them will do.

Of course, that won’t stop them from using the goals as the basis for raising taxes when and where they can. After all, we’re still raising taxes on the basis of Kyoto, a treaty that increases government revenues far better than it limits emissions, if only because it sends so much cash up in smoke. Q: What are the chances Kyoto will be seen as something destructive to the global economic environment? A: 0.

Kyoto was rejected by the US Senate 99-0. It’s perhaps fortunate the Toronto agreement’s just a G20 emission and not an actual treaty that would require cuts in spending, the way Kyoto was supposed to require cuts in carbon usage. If it were, it would fare better in the US Senate, but it would still fail. This time the vote would be 59-41.

– Calamo.