The G-20 this weekend: A model international summit

The FT gave this straight-faced summary of the G-20 Meeting: "Although the meeting ended without specific new commitments and no country or central bank would be forced to change any existing policy in light of the communiqué, the participants ...said they were pleased by the spirit of cooperation among the Group of 20 leading and emerging economies."

This is why politicians love summits -- they get credit for doing something while they are in fact doing nothing.

We in development aid perfected this art of summiteering before anyone else. We get the record for getting everyone to agree to the loftiest goals while nobody in fact has to make any "specific new commitments" or "change any existing policy". We call them Millennium Development Goals.