G7 Nations See Eventual Recovery

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations met late Friday to discuss the current economic crisis and hammer out a message that urges swift action. In their communique, the leaders acknowledged the many problems facing the global economy but issued a cautiously optimistic note, saying that "recent data suggest that the pace of decline has slowed... and some signs of stabilization are emerging." A weak recovery later in the year is anticipated.

The G7 nations consist of the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. The group typically meets about every couple of months to discuss and tackle the major economic issues of the day and how they can present a unified front to the financial markets.

In past years, the weak dollar and trade imbalances were typically addressed. But today's economic crisis is the worst in decades, providing the backdrop for the latest meeting.

The leaders of the countries are fully aware that a steady economic recovery will have trouble taking hold until the major banks rid themselves of problem loans and securities that have bogged down efforts to jump-start lending. Cleaning up these messy balance sheets is truly a complex, time-consuming, and costly undertaking.

In my view, they stated the obvious. But can you really fault seven powerful nations, each with their own self-interests, on their inability to agree on detailed actions to right the problems in the global economy?

Past communiques have been usually been broad in scope but have lacked concrete proposals. And not wanting to offending any particular country has usually resulted in watered-down statements. At least the money chiefs promised to keep cooperating.