Les dernières nouvelles confirment ces appréciations générales pour le moins sceptiques, parfois crépusculaires puisque c'est le sort du monde qui est en jeu, indeed. Les Américains ne semblent pas s'intéresser vraiment aux ambitions de Gordon Brown de sauver le monde par l'intermédiaire de cette réunion du G20 qu'il prépare. Voici ce qu'on dit, en quelques mots, The Independent du 14 mars : «Gordon Brown's hopes of hammering out a detailed rescue plan for the global economy are fading… […] The growing list of problems facing the Prime Minister were underlined when the White House appeared to write off the prospect of achieving a concrete deal at the summit. President Barack Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, predicted: «We are not going to negotiate some specific economic percentage or commitment.»» Pour le reste, pour ce qui a chaotiquement précédé, un excellent article du Financial Times, du 13 mars, fait l'affaire. Il nous résume la situation tactique, c'est-à-dire un chaos sympathiquement vigoureux. • L'opposition brutale entre Européens et Américains nourrit la chronique. Elle se situe au niveau de l'action à entreprendre. Les Américains ont toujours leurs mêmes habitudes de chapitrer les autres pour les inciter à réparer selon leurs propres méthodes, à eux Américains, les catastrophes dont eux-mêmes, les Américains, sont responsables. Cela agace. «As Mr Summers appeared in Monday's Financial Times declaring, «There's no place that should be reducing its contribution to global demand right now» and «It is really the universal demand agenda», European countries had no doubt his words were addressed to them. George W. Bush may have gone but parts of Old Europe are acutely sensitive to being lectured about the need for fiscal stimulus by the very country that many of them blame for having started the crisis. »Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, reacted the next day with what came across – at least from a distance – as lofty disdain, implying that such a call was not worthy of discussion. «We are not debating any additional measures,» he told reporters. With the crotchety air of a dowager duchess sending a sub-standard amuse-bouche back to the kitchens, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg prime minister and chair of the «eurogroup» of finance ministers from the single currency zone, added sniffily: «The 16 finance ministers agreed that recent American appeals insisting Europeans make an added budgetary effort were not to our liking.» • Les Américains veulent de l'argent, encore de l'argent, toujours de l'argent à mettre dans les économies, pour relancer l'économie (la leur, principalement). Les Européens, mais surtout les Allemands, veulent la régulation des marchés, la chasse aux «paradis fiscaux», bref l'attaque contre les bandits. «One finance official characterises this attitude as akin to that of a pugilist in a bar brawl. «You wait until a fight breaks out and then take a swing at the guy you have always wanted to hit» the official says. «Whether or not he had anything to do with starting the fight is not the point.» • Cela a même rassemblé Merkel et Sarko sur cette question technique de la méthode de lutte, cette fois en un front commun contre les demandes des Américains. «Bashing unregulated financial capitalism in general and hedge funds in particular is sufficiently popular in continental Europe that this call even overcame the habitual froideur between Angela Merkel, Mr Steinbrück's boss, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president. Later in the week, the two of them joined forces to argue that more rules rather than an open cheque book would be the way out of the financial crisis. Asked about the US push for stimulus, Ms Merkel pointedly responded : «This is the reason why we decided to speak with one voice today.» • Les commentaires, les bons mots et les allusions ne cessent de voler bas, principalement de la part des Européens vers les Américains. L'administration Obama, surtout avec l'insupportable et arrogant Summers (pas Tim Geithner, qu'on n'arrive pas à toucher au téléphone) a perdu pas mal de son lustre et beaucoup de sa popularité. On emploie des jugements comme «amateurs péremptoires», «coupables impudents», «irresponsables satisfaits» et ainsi de suite. «The Europeans have developed this nice line: ‘The Americans are only asking us for money because they haven't got the guts to ask Congress for it's, says one hedge fund manager.» • Et donc, au milieu de tout cela, le pauvre, pauvre Brown… «At the centre of this particular storm is the UK. A certain amount of schadenfreude can be detected outside the host country at its difficulties in achieving unity. It was Gordon Brown, prime minister, along with Mr Sarkozy, who insisted on portraying the last G20 summit in Washington in November as something akin to a new Bretton Woods, the 1944 conference that designed the postwar financial order. […] But this week, Mr Brown was forced to choose whether to break ranks with fellow EU leaders when they declared they had done enough for the moment on fiscal stimulus. Notably, he appeared to hold to the European consensus, despite tugs in the other direction from UK business leaders balking at the endless talk of remaking the global economic order…» • D'où cette conclusion, très english, tasse de thé, pubs réservés aux hommes, arsenic & vieilles dentelles, et humour nonsensical pour cacher, après tout, une certaine amertume, peut-être celle d'un coup sans doute en train d'être raté (voir plus loin)… «Along the way, despite the superficial similarities to the late 1990s, some extraordinary reversals have happened. Washington is lecturing the world on the dangers of fiscal prudence. The IMF is begging Asia for money. And Mr Brown is prioritising European unity. These are strange times indeed.» (A suivre)
