Obama says "Everybody must pick up the pace" as U.S Economy limps into the G-20 summit...

President Obama was all smiles in his first overseas trip as Commander and Chief but he's knows as well as us all, this trip is no vacation. The President and first lady Michelle Obama will be in London today at the G-20 summit where twenty heads of states will congregate to try and combat the global economic crisis. This year however things are a little different as the usual image of the strong verile United States of America comes practically limping into the discussions with so much at stake. Obama made it clear along with British PM Gordon Brown that the U.S cannot be the 'engine' in the global economy anymore, at least now as it flounders to stay afloat in the global economy. Willem H. Buiter former member of the Bank of England monetary policy committee and a London School of Economics professor put it more bluntly: "We cannot rely on the U.S being the global locomotive. Those days are gone".
The facts are obvious, the U.S had accounted for 1/3 of the global economy in the 1980's, now it's a one-quarter. So now it's down to negotiations at the G-20 summit. Obama knows not everyone will agree but they have to make the best of it. "I know that the G=20 nations are appropriately pursuing their own approaches," Obama said and that is true. So as the countries play Economic 'doctors' trying to find the right presciptions to heal the ailing global economy one thing is certain: Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was the World debt...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/01/AR2009040102094.html