This G20 Summit tomorrow or "Bretton Woods 2" is fairly historic and has just got a spot on the news. They are talking about more regulation and no jurisdiction escaping it - does that mean the end of tax havens? would that be a bad thing would Switzerland end up as the world's biggest chcolate exporter ?

Brown did I hear wants a Croke-Park load of money to be given to the IMF to stimulate demand all over the place and someone else said China and India should be given some say on the IMF that they didn't have previously (at the expense of the EU I read in the IHT). This could mean that money would be allocated differently to borderline countries - potentially more productively/constructively because the IMF haven't a spotless record on dealing with the finances of emerging nations. They even now have no qualms about turning Iceland into a nation of slaves by whacking an interest rate of 18% on loans of 6 billion to them.

I've a feeling that it might not be a bad thing if a number of currently strong currencies in the world were tied within a floating exchange rate band so corporations looking for bargain could be allowed to do so as well as consumers (driving North for Christmas ... ) but it would deter currency speculators. This would allow business to happen between countries without huge and artificial advantages arising because of advantageous interest rates which turn around and bite you in the long term. That's just one thing and I'm not really that sure what the effects of it would be - at the moment smaller countries can have tax haven status and conversely can be subject to international sharks but perhaps they would be better off being directly associated with other members in a bigger bloc. I haven't thought that out fully so it could be a load of hogwash. The likes of the UK and Denmark have survived well enough upto now outside the Euro or any such system. I suppose what I am talking about is a project like an internation Euro.

What would you do ?

Here is Max Keiser talking about Iceland and the 'Carry Trade'. Interesting and informative and Keiser is a good teacher.

Part I