The financial media put a positive spin on a joint statement Sunday by the wealthiest members of the Group of 20 countries that they would halve their deficits by 2013 and stabilize their debt burdens by 2016.
The Obama administration has abdicated America's historic post-World War II economic leadership role as it pursues what the rest of the world sees as a misguided economic policy.
Leaders of the world's 20 most powerful economies said this weekend that they must control deficits in the long run but not stifle a nascent economic recovery in the short term, in what President Obama described as "violent agreement" on principles.
President Barack Obama on Sunday welcomed an international commitment for rich countries to slash their deficits in half by 2013, despite his earlier warnings against halting stimulus spending too abruptly.
Black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful demonstrators protesting a global economic summit in Toronto on Saturday, torching police cruisers and smashing windows with baseball bats and hammers. Police arrested more than 100 people.
Wary of slamming on the stimulus brakes too quickly but shaken by the European debt crisis, world leaders pledged on Sunday to slash government deficits in the most industrialized nations in half by 2013, with wiggle room to meet the goal.
As world leaders gathered to deal with the aftermath of the global financial crisis, President Obama boasted about a congressional compromise on overhauling the U.S. banking system and called for an international effort to prevent future economic meltdowns.
Defying a warning from Washington, Pakistan's prime minister promised Tuesday to go ahead with a plan to import natural gas from Iran even if the U.S. levies additional sanctions against the Mideast country.
China's decision to end its currency's 2-year-old peg to the U.S. dollar is stirring anticipation of a gradual appreciation in the yuan in trading Monday -- an increase that would bring relief to foreign manufacturers struggling to compete with cheap Chinese products.
