Academic

Apropos David's and Gordon's posts, for years now, G-7 gatherings served to highlight the group's waning relevance.  Having China to lunch every summer made no dent in the global imbalances that landed us in the current puddle, and made the old-power finance ministers look less, not more important.  Reform proposals mushroomed (e.g., Bradford and Linn at Brookings, Bergsten at the Peterson Institute).  Today's tandem rate cut is a hopeful sign for good old-fashioned macro coordination, especially in the wake of recent European flailing.  It makes the upcoming G-7 and IMF meetings a much more interesting prospect.  Even so, recent events do not exactly rebut criticisms of the G-7 as a coordination vehicle.  But they may spur its morphing into a credible successor. 

I do think that regulatory convergence is different and harder.