To Halt Slide, Apply Debt or Control?

From Nytimes.com

When the leaders of 20 nations met in Washington in November to face down a grave economic crisis that imperiled them all, the air was filled with promises of a new era of global regulation intended to match a new era of global risk.

The downturn is much sharper, its effects much more broadly felt. But the divide over how to regulate markets is deep. The United States and Britain, the world’s two biggest financial centers, will almost reflexively resist efforts to subject themselves to global regulators.

One European ambassador said last weekend that “in three weeks we’ll see whether the love affair with Mr. Obama can withstand our demand that the United States clean up its system fast, and his demand that we contribute more to Afghanistan, even faster.”