World leaders prepared to adopt an early warning system for financial calamities, a commitment to tougher accounting rules and other modest steps to try to prevent crises like the one now threatening the livelihoods of billions of people around the globe.
Nearly two dozen leaders dined in extravagance at the White House on Friday in a prelude to negotiations yesterday over how best to wrestle global economies back from the brink of economic disaster.
The leaders were on track to approve measures to make the world financial system more accountable to investors and more transparent to regulators, said diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of anonymity. To do so, the leaders were expected to endorse more effective accounting rules governing how companies value their assets, a weakness seen as partly responsible for the current financial crisis.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
A new early warning system would look for signs of burgeoning problems like those in the US housing market and related overuse of mortgage-backed securities. On Friday, the heads of the IMF, the world’s financial firefighter, and the Financial Stability Forum, a group that includes central banks and major financial regulators, said they would cooperate on “early warning exercises” to detect vulnerabilities.
Bush gave Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a less than warm welcome at the White House dinner amid controversy over a leaked conversation between them, a report said yesterday.
Bush “appeared somewhat standoffish” as he greeted Rudd, the Australian Associated Press reported from Washington.
At the heart of the controversy is a claim in an Australian newspaper last month that Bush displayed embarrassing ignorance by asking Rudd in a telephone call about the crisis: “What’s the G20?”
The allegation has been denied by both Canberra and Washington.
“While other world leaders got big smiles and pats on the back from Mr. Bush, the Australian prime minister had to make do with a brief handshake and a relatively stony face from the president as the pair posed for photographers and TV crews,” the report said.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
HOTEL HIRING: An official said that hoteliers could begin hiring migrant workers next year, but must adhere to a rule requiring a NT$2,000 salary hike for Taiwanese The government is to allow the hospitality industry to recruit mid-level migrant workers for housekeeping and three other lines of work after the Executive Yuan yesterday approved a proposal by the Ministry of Labor. A shortage of workers at hotels and accommodation facilities was discussed at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee. A 2023 survey conducted by the Tourism Administration found that Taiwan’s lodging industry was short of about 6,600 housekeeping and cleaning workers, the agency said in a report to the committee. The shortage of workers in the industry is being studied, the report said. Hotel and Lodging Division Deputy Director Cheng
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
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