This is the week that President Barack Obama goes back to Europe and he is facing challenges to American power on multiple fronts as he prepares for his first trip overseas since taking office, with the nation's economic woes emboldening allies and adversaries alike. It's not going to be like it was when he was running for President. He is NOW the U.S. President and the one on top is always a target for those below. It's the G-20 Summit gathering time.
Despite his immense popularity around the world, Mr. Obama will confront resentment over American-style capitalism and resistance to his economic prescriptions when he lands in London on Tuesday for the Group of 20 summit meeting of industrial and emerging market nations plus the European Union. If there was an indication of how things might go, Gordon Brown's fate might hold a clue.
Gordon Brown's preparations for this week's G20 summit in London got off to a bad start last night when a British blueprint for a £1.4 trillion worldwide spending boost was leaked. In an embarrassing disclosure, a draft of the final communiqué to be signed off by world leaders at the end of the one-day gathering on Thursday appeared in the German magazine Der Spiegel.
There were suspicions that the leak was a deliberate act of sabotage by sources within the German government, where Chancellor Angela Merkel is adopting a more cautious approach to fiscal moves to boost the national economy than Mr Brown, who will chair the summit. And things could really get nasty outside the meetings as wll.
Tens of thousands of people marched in capital cities across Europe on Saturday to protest about the economic crisis and urge world leaders to act on poverty, jobs and climate change at a G20 summit next week. Chanting "tax the rich, make them pay," protesters marched through London waving banners saying "People before Profit," at the start of a week of protests that reflected growing public anger over bankers' pay and their role in the crisis.
Are you ready for a wild week? :-)
