At IMF, Canada's FinMin Flaherty Tells ICP Glad for Delay of Volcker Rule, Geithner

By Matthew Russell Lee

WASHINGTON DC, April 20 -- The Volcker Rule on proprietary trading by banks was one of the responses to the subprime financial meltdown of 2008. 

  On Friday at the IMF, Inner City Press asked Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty about what it has reported as the Group of 20's opposition to the rule, especially for its treatment of non-US sovereign debt.

  Flaherty told Inner City Press, "it came up informally a couple of times... I can tell you, Canada is please there's been delay in planned implementation date, concerned about extraterritorial effect, I've discussed with Secretary Geithner and we look forward to further developments."

  Geithner, as we've noted and even asked the US State Department to explain, did not show up for the Finance Ministers meeting about Rio + 20 and sustainable development held Friday at the World Bank. But has Geithner given Flaherty some re-regulatory assurance?

  Flaherty was also asked about a "disagreement" he had with Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, concerning whether European countries were doing enough about their crisis to avoid Flaherty's requested veto and loss of European seats in the IMF. 

  Flaherty said he's known Schauble for as long as he's been Germany minister, Flaherty has served longer. Could that be the problem?

Inner City Press asked him directly, beyond the alleged differential treatment of sovereign debt, if the mixing of banking and proprietary trading played a role in the meltdown.

  "We're all entitled to our views," Flaherty replied. "In the Canadian situation, proprietary trading was not an issue for us. Some would argue it was not causative. I'll leave to others to debate." Yeah - while he whispers to Tim Geithner about it, then at the G20 in Mexico.

  Later Friday afternoon outside the IMF a protest marched by, to chants including Occupy Wall Street. Few journalists looked up from "making the donuts," so to speak, packaging Christine Lagarde's canned quotes to Charlie Rose as news. And so it has gone at the IMF. Watch this site.

On G20, Mexico Doesn't Meet UN's Ban, Occupy Discouraged, Volcker Rule Opposed, UN in "Urgent Need of Reform"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- When the current G20 heads of Mexico came to New York, they tellingly did not meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Inner City Press learned on Thursday. Rather they met only with Ban's official Robert Orr, now being moved to an invented post about public private partnerships.

The Mexican Mission to the UN's able spokesman organized a press conference at the Mission with five journalists, at which Roberto Marino and "Sherpa" representative Gabriel Terres downplayed the obsolescence of the UN.

Then Inner City Press asked Mexico's Permanent Representative to respond to the theory that currently the UN General Assembly is becoming obsolete, or "not fit for purpose" as its President from Qatar has put it. (The PGA's spokeswoman told Inner City Press earlier on Thursday this was "taken out of context," but wouldn't say if any correction had been requested.)

It is "in urgent need of reform," Mexico's ambassador responded, indicting the marginalization of ECOSOC, but saying that somehow the current troika and Singapore could reverse it.

Mexico is a leader of the UFC school of Security Council reform which if enacted, which is unlikely, could help reverse the trend.

The Mission was asked if the Occupy movement will target their G20. I hope not, said Marino. But why not? Already President Obama has moved the G8 from Chicago to Camp David to make it "more intimate" -- that is, less protestable.

Inner City Press asked if it is true that the G20 is against implementation of the US Volcker Rule, not because it is pro deregulation, but only because it would lower the value of non-US goverment bonds. It hadn't been implemented, Magiro agilely answered.

But in fact a Mexico based subprime lending owned by Salinas Pliego, the Grupo Elektra, is now in line to buy controversial US payday lending Advance America. Who is using the G20? Watch this site.