Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

by Adam Tooze

The London G20 was not mere theater. The incorporation of a key group of emerging markets into global economic policy was a genuine innovation. The ratification of the IMF deal was to prove particularly important. In the years to come it would prove to be a vital resource, ironically enough, for Europe. But if this was the future of global governance, perhaps the gibes about the Congress of Vienna were not entirely wide of the mark. It was exciting for London to be hosting America’s glamorous new president, and the faded fixtures of 1990s Cool Britannia were out in force. The message of confidence issuing from the meeting, the huge boost to IMF resources, was good news, above all, for financial markets in London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, the media that served them and the audience of investors around the world, large and small. But when talking IMF quotas or tax havens, public participation was not welcomed by the British or the Americans, let alone the Chinese or the Saudis. As a political event the summit was an airtight cabal of executive power, housed in the cavernous bunkers of the ExCeL conference center, shielded from tens of thousands of protesters by a gigantic police mobilization.50 In the course of the confrontations in the City of London, a homeless newspaper vendor was fatally injured by the police, adding fuel to indignant protests about repressive police tactics. Inside the conference hall, Gordon Brown proved that he was perfectly suited to the role of Tr...