Needed - a new Bretton Woods

While plenty of other liberal bloggers have picked up on the top half of a great John Judis article, what caught me was the bottom half.

Judis says that addressing the post-Bretton Woods system of currency manipulation, by Japan then China above all, may be a key part of getting out of the current global economic straits.

Well, don't expect Beijing to call such a conference, and it's doubtful Tokyo will.

I'll take Judis' ball a bit further down the road and argue that the European Union could flex some financial muscle by beating Obama to the punch on calling just such an international finance meeting.

Bretton Woods to come under review?

There’s indications that a special world financial summit this weekend could do just that. France, Germany and Britain are all calling for the world’s 64-year-old system of financial architecture to be reviewed.

Whether much change is made or not, that call for change would underscore this is indeed the biggest financial crisis since the Depression. The size of it as a general economic crisis is another issue, however.