William R. Rhodes to G-20: 'Stop the Pontificating'
Asia Society trustee and Task Force chair William R. Rhodes doesn't mince words in a new CNN.com opinion piece on this week's G-20 Summit in Seoul. In his piece, "Stop the rhetoric, it's time for G-20 action," Rhodes argues, "The Group of 20 Summit in Seoul, South Korea, on November 11 and 12, may be the most important meeting of this group to date.
"Finance ministers and central bank governors preparing thesummit said all the right things at the recent Washington annual meetings ofthe IMF and World Bank—noting how fragile economic conditions are, warningof the risks of protectionism, voicing concern about currency movements and theneed to address underlying payments balances, and calling for agreement ontough financial regulatory reform.
"But, now it is time to stop the pontificating and act. TheG-20 summit will be judged on the decisions it takes and how these areimplemented."
Rhodes speaks on high-level economic issues from a position of authority. He is a Senior Advisor for Citi, after having spent more than 50 years with the institution, and his work in international financial diplomacy in the 1980s and 1990s helped manage the debt crisis that involved developing nations and their creditors worldwide.
Just this month, meanwhile, Rhodes chaired the Asia Society Task Force report Growing Together Beats Falling Apart: Making Asian Economic Integration Work for Asia, the United States and the World, which makes the case for a new "global economic rebalancing." Rhodes helped launch the report in Seoul on Nov. 9, just ahead of the G-20 summit.
Click here to read William Rhodes's entire CNN.com op-ed.