Vuvuzela

I think vuvuzelas' take the prize as the most irritating innovation, think noise, of the current World Cup.
I suspect there will be a parallel in a Toronto suburb this weekend. The vuvuzela will be Obama's [no doubt erudite] plea for the G8 and G20 to continue stimulating their economies rather than concentrating on getting their fiscal houses in order.

I think this is a lost cause; Germany and the GB have their minds made up and will focus on cost reduction and in the main debt reduction; China, Canada, Brazil, India and Australia didn't suffer as others did and are unlikely to push stimulus programs. Some one, no doubt, will suggest that Europe sell Greece or has already been suggested Greece should sell some of it's islands to middle east oil billionaires.

China having emerged from the crisis in good shape and better spirits will be unlikely to cooperate on anything of real import ... after all they just volunteered to "free" the yuan exchange rate[at least at the 3rd decimal place] but not enough to please anyone other than themselves.

As with Germany, the other major economies of the EU will concentrate on the fiscal issues [or in the case of France give them lip service] so Obama will be singing solo. It's unclear whether additional stimuli makes sense vs the fiscal restraints that others are pursuing.

What is clear is that once again the West will look to the US to be the west's engine of growth despite the reality that we cannot afford it.