USA and Europe meet to face economic crises

Amidst the euphoria of Barack Obama's election as new president of United States comes a sobering call for immediate transition in the White House, to institute measures needed to stabilise the economy and for the European Union leaders to formulate a common position.

The economic crisis characterised Barack Obama's presidential campaign and will determine his manoeuvrings room during a greater part of his presidential mandate, wrote Dagens Nyheter(http://www.dn.se/) in its editorial today. In order to cope with the acute economic crises, he will have to allow the budget deficit to swell. The new stimulant package could be the biggest in modern times and possibilities for reform limited.

Obama will have to caution the Americans not to consume beyond their means and sanitise the budget. There is the danger that he might not be able to control expenditures in the light of expectations for "change" which had become his campaign slogan. Her may succumb to populist demands by a Democratic majority in the US Congress, such as trade protection to shield the US domestic economy.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Union heads -of -state are meeting to try to formulate a common position before the international economic meeting in Washington on Nov. 15 this year. The objective of the Washington meeting is to create guidelines for a new formulation of regulation and supervision of the financial markets and watch over institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It is popularly known as the Bretton Woods II, named after the big conference in Bretton Woods , USA in July 1944 after the World War II when international economic cooperation took form.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is one of the initiators and host of the meeting, in competition with Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown on who can best save Europe and the rest of the world from a financial meltdown. The French wants to see better regulation of the finance markets, although obviously not over-regulated to prevent efficiency. When the finance ministers met earlier, countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden and Finland criticised the French proposal for being too detailed and centralised.# (Edited translation made from DN's editorial)