The G20 Summit: Showbiz or Way Forward?

Published April 15, 2009

The new Club of 20 countries had its first outing on April 2. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown managed the staging well: cocktails with the Queen, protesters outside the Bank of England, photo-ops galore, private side-meetings for the VVIPs (the Obamas and Chinese premier) and a wrap-up press conference where everyone announced who had won the trillion dollars in prize money.

But was it worth the hoopla, as well as the participants'...