Sarkozy's G-20 Tantrum

Ultimatums are always the smartest way to go: French President Nicolas Sarkozy is threatening to walk out of this week’s Group of 20 summit if his plan for tougher global financial regulations is not adopted. The main item on the agenda for the London summit is financial oversight, but Sarkozy, who has blamed the “Anglo-Saxons” for the financial crisis and says he will not tolerate empty talk at the meeting, specifically wants to create a global financial regulator, an idea British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called ridiculous. Germany, Britain, and the US are pushing for a “college” of regulators, located in several countries, that will supervise companies. Meanwhile, a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 30 Western democracies, predicts that unemployment will reach 10 percent next year in most developed nations and that growth will slump 4.3 percent this year.