The Quick Result

clipped from www.realclearmarkets.com it is commonplace for prominent commentators such as the Financial Times' Martin Wolf, and MIT’s Simon Johnson to point to the upcoming G20 conference in London as the moment when the big nations must act effectively and collectively to stem the global financial depression. The London Conference of 1933 is correctly considered a failure that led to a widespread breakdown in national relations, to a helter skelter raising of trade barriers, to random and often sinister currency manipulations, and to a prolonged crushing of commodity prices. It is crucial to understand that the disappointment of the London Conference, the inability of the great powers to find common ground on trade, currency and prices, led to a sense of moral helplessness in Europe. The breakdown at the Disarmament Conference in Paris in the fall of 1933 was a quick result.