The Curtain Rises

Obama and British PM Gordon Brown would like you to know that Things Have Changed. Obama, Brown Strike Similar Notes on Economy

The decades-old agreement about the benefits of lightly regulated financial markets and unfettered international commerce came under attack at the Group of 20 summit.

“The old Washington consensus is over,” declared U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, lending his voice to the idea that changes are coming to the international
economy

I really don’t know how seriously we should take this, as the “London Consensus” is that Brown will be catching up on his light reading by this time next year. Obama was willing to along, however:

President Barack Obama didn’t go as far, but he did critique the concept as “a cookie-cutter model” in which national leaders were complacent about the risks. “A crisis like this reminds us that we just have to put in some common-sense rules of the road,” he said at a press conference bringing the summit to a close.

No more cookies?! To the barricades!

Of course, Obama can’t get Big Picture on us without mixing in his usual snotty comments about his predecessor with his self-regarding appraisal about the world-historic significance about his own fabulous self:

“I would like to think that with my election, we’re starting to see some restoration of America’s standing in the world,” he said at a news conference, touting the U.S.’s continued status as the world’s largest economy with the most powerful military.

Well, at least we’ve still got that going for us.