We must not allow... a diva gap!! [UPDATED]

Posted By Daniel W. Drezner Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - 12:54 PM Share

In honor of General Buck Turgidson, I see that the French are pulling away in the diva arms race as the London G-20 Summit approaches:

France will walk away from this week's G20 summit if its demands for stricter financial regulation are not met, the finance minister has told the BBC.
Christine Lagarde told HardTalk that President Nicolas Sarkozy would not sign any agreement if he felt "the deliverables are not there".

This is yet another example of France's unsurpassed superiority in world politics at doing things that make the global press pay attention to France.

One could argue that the United States should concentrate its energies on actual policy coordination. Any great power worth its salt, however, should be able to do the policy coordination and practice diva bargaining tactics.

I therefore propose that President Obama add Miss Britney Spears to the U.S. negotiating team. Let France try to make its voice heard in that media maelstrom.

Other proposals to counter France's bargaining tactics are warmly welcomed in the comments.

UPDATE: To be fair to Sarkozy, he is not the only Frenchmen who is grandstanding at the moment.

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

EXPLORE:INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, FRANCE, GLOBAL GOVERNANCE, INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

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DAN KERVICK

3:46 PM ET

March 31, 2009

Maybe Grandstanding Sometimes Works?

I'm inclined to think that Sarkozy is right, and that these diva tactics might be the best way to get his case before a global audience and increase bargaining leverage. What is the US going to give up in exchange for the increased stimulus spending it wants from Europe? Increased capacity in international financial governance needs to be on the table.

France knows Obama's right and center-right flanks, who dominate the US economic community, are classic American sovereigntists who get very fussy and cranky about vigorous internationalism of any kind. To get any kind movement from the US, he has to give Obama a political excuse for making it. High-profile economic brinkmanship might be the only way to push the US into accepting the bold changes that need to be made.

DAN KERVICK

8:23 PM ET

March 31, 2009

Substance?

I guess this goes without saying, but I take it you oppose Sarkozy's actual proposal, and not just the political theater he has threatened to mount to push for it?

BLUE13326

10:18 PM ET

March 31, 2009

It all depends on how far it

It all depends on how far it goes, doesn't it? What would be the global equilibrium that came about from the regulation? It could easily lead to an inefficient allocation of capital, and a stifling of innovation, innovation which we desperately need to get us out of this crisis. After all, economic growth comes about through innovation, right?

If the global regulation, say, followed the French model, a high regulation culture with consequent low innovation and economic growth, it could be very harmful to the world economy. France, of course, would see little change, since we'd all be regulated globally on the French model. We'd all be paying the same price that France already does for low moral hazard: A stifling of new ideas, and low economic growth. It's important to keep in mind that even this high regulation culture did not prevent European banks from being even more over-leveraged than their US counterparts.

As far as whether Sarkozy's diva act will be effective, who knows? Obama is such a mystery, it's hard to say what he's willing to give away. But France really isn't important enough to matter much these days unless Germany joins with it.

DAN KERVICK

12:40 AM ET

April 1, 2009

A Matter of Economic Taste?

Personally, I might be willing to accept slower growth rates in exchange for longer vacations, more control over my workplace environment and a better safety net. This is perhaps just a personal preference, but one that some others might share. Dialing up innovation and growth to their maximum achievable levels does not necessarily produce the most livable society, just as the car with the most powerful engine does not necessarily produce the most pleasant ride. There are other social values to weigh along with productivity.

BLUE13326

1:10 AM ET

April 1, 2009

I'm sure, if such a model

I'm sure, if such a model were sustainable, a lot of people would agree. But if everyone decides all at once to be the cart, where's the horse that's going to pull it along?

DAN KERVICK

2:01 AM ET

April 1, 2009

We're All Still Horses

Why is the model unsustainable? It's not a question of everyone being the cart. We would all work, and work productively. We just wouldn't produce as much as we might produce with less leisure time.

Certainly, we Americans could produce even more than we produce now, if we were inclined to devote more hours to work and accept even less leisure time and job security than we already do. We could devote our every waking hour to producing economic growth and innovation, and surrender our fate entirely to the flux of a labor marketplace in which we treat ourselves as tirelessly moving, rootless and dislocatable labor inputs. But we don't. We don't want to live that way. And perhaps the appropriate balance is somewhat more in the direction of leisure and security than we already have?

More to the point before us, what the French seem to be asking us to consider is whether there are individual and social benefits of a less turbulent business cycle and more carefully managed risk that might outweigh the opportunity costs attending slightly less rapid growth and innovation.

BLUE13326

9:47 AM ET

April 1, 2009

Why do you think an American

Why do you think an American economic crisis has hit Europe and Asia harder than it has here?

When the horse that pulls the cart goes lame, the cart won't move.

A solution that turns the horse into a cart doesn't seem an effective way to make the cart move.

WASHBOARDALEX

9:07 AM ET

April 1, 2009

You all know this to be true.

Prince should deliver all of America's speeches. Dissenters should be subject to pimp-caning.