G-20 May Endorse Stimulus, Little Else as Bush Exits

A two-day summit on the global economic crisis begins today in Washington with world leaders likely to agree on little more than trying to spend their way out of a global recession. The Group of 20 heads of state are deeply divided on what needs to be done after that. European leaders are demanding greater state controls over financial markets. President George W. Bush, who hosts a dinner of his counterparts at the White House tonight, takes a narrower view. Increased government spending on economic stimulus is something most of the industrialized and developing nations that form the G-20 are already planning to do. Any shift toward substantive change to the international financial system will probably wait for another meeting after President-elect Barack Obama takes office. ``The most realistic outcome is an agreement to start putting in place principles for reforms, and then agree to meet again,'' said Brad Setser, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. Treasury official. Leaders of the G-20, who represent almost 90 percent of the world economy, are feeling pressure with stock markets tumbling and economists forecasting the deepest global recession in three decades.