Today, as global stock markets continue to fall and fears of a global recession deepen, finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) are meeting in Washington in advance of IMF and World Bank meetings tomorrow.  These ministers from the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are expected to address the current global financial crisis.  Many policy makers and central bankers around the world originally viewed the mortgage meltdown primarily as an American problem with secondary ripple effects in Europe.  But the interconnectedness of the world financial markets soon brought this crisis to markets in Europe and Asia, requiring a coordinated international response.  This is a global problem, and it will require a global solution.  
 
However some conservative leaders, notably John McCain, have a history of being condescending and downright insulting to the very countries that we need to work with in order to address this crisis.  McCain has a long track record of denigrating the French and the Germans - once referring to them as our "adversaries."  He has proposed the creation of a League of Democracies - an institution that would draw the ire of Russia and China by excluding them.  He has also used inflammatory language towards Russia and advocated for kicking Russia out of the G8.  
 
No President will be able to solve this problem on his own.  Balancing the national interests of key actors is a challenge even in the most favorable of circumstances.  During a time of global financial crisis John McCain's reckless foreign policy is likely to complicate a difficult situation.
 

G7 Finance ministers meet as the IMF and World Bank call for global response.  Today the finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 nations, the world's wealthiest democracies, meet to discuss the global economic crisis.  The meeting comes ahead of this weekend's IMF and World Bank meetings where the crisis will also be the topic of discussion.  Moreover, in a specially scheduled meeting tomorrow at the White House, the President will meet with the G7 ministers and the heads of the IMF and World Bank.  Dana Perino said that, "The president will emphasize the importance of nations working in a coordinated way to address the crisis, while respecting the different conditions in each economy."  At the same time IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has called for international cooperation  in addressing the situation at hand, saying "Our view is that the situation is very serious, but at the same time that we can solve problems if we act quickly, forcefully and cooperatively." World Bank President Robert Zoellick made a similar point in a separate briefing saying, "I hope the G7 will point toward coordinated action to show that authorities are getting ahead of the curve," emphasizing that "the actions and reforms need to be multilateral."  One thing that is abundantly clear is that world leaders need to work together in addressing this crisis.[WS Journal, 10/10/08. WS Journal, 10/9/08]
 
Markets worldwide are plunging together.  In our era of globalization, the markets worldwide are so interwoven and interconnected that when a financial crisis hits, the consequences are felt globally.  Policy makers and leaders in Europe "discover[ed] that its financial system is so interwoven with that of the United States and the rest of the world -- and so vulnerable to shaky assets -- that the virus in New York swiftly spread through the European banking network. In so doing, it revealed that Europe's leaders face challenges just as difficult as those bedeviling Washington and exposed the limits of the European Union's much-heralded economic integration." The effects were not only felt in Europe, "Fear from Wall Street flooded Asia today, where markets were sharply lower in early trading. Japan's benchmark Nikkei average plunged more than 10 percent in the morning session, while Australian markets slid more than 7 percent and South Korean stocks fell as much as 8 percent." Peter Cardillo, an economist with Avalon Partners, described it as "a domino effect."  [Washington Post, 10/10/08. Washington Post 10/10/08]
 
The crisis has spread throughout the world requiring a global solution.  President of the World Bank and Former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick has argued the necessity that the current crisis be addressed in coordination with other world leaders.  "Just as the crisis has been international because of interconnectedness, the reforms will need to be multilateral."  He called for an expansion of international cooperation saying that "The G7 is not working. We need a better group for a different time."  In what he called "new multilateralism," Mr. Zoellick pushed for greater cooperation in everything from financial and economic issues to energy and trade. [Wall Street Journal, 10/7/08]
 
Central Bank coordination has already shown the importance of cooperation.  "The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and other central banks from Britain and Switzerland to Canada and China announced rate reductions within seconds of one another. The British government separately announced a plan to pump billions of pounds into the country's leading banks as part of a plan that would result in considerably greater government influence over the financial sector there."  According to Federal Reserve officials "Wednesday's action was the first time ever that the Fed had coordinated a reduction in interest rates with other central banks."  It is apparent that the current crisis is global and unlike anything we have dealt with in the past, and must be addressed multilaterally. [New York Times, 10/8/08]
 

McCain has a history of alienating some of our closest and most important allies, even beyond the standards of his own party. In the run up to the war in Iraq, John McCain charged, "that the [NATO] alliance is failing the test because of the 'flawed calculations' and 'vacuous posturing' of Germany and France." McCain also said that "France has unashamedly pursued a concerted policy to dismantle the UN sanctions regime, placing its commercial interests above international law, world peace and the political ideals of Western civilization." These comments lead his friend and Republican colleague Chuck Hagel to respond that, this rhetoric "pushes allies away from us. I mean, the fact that France and Germany may have a different opinion on this, not because Saddam Hussein can be rehabilitated--that isn't the issue here. The issue is, is how we do it, when we do it and--and with what force we do it, and those are legitimate questions." More recently, McCain even refused to say whether he would invite Spain's Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to the White House, apparently not even knowing who he was.  This disregard for our closest allies only hurts America's chances to work with them [John McCain, 2/13/03. CBS Sunday Morning, 2/16/03.  Huffington Post, 9/18/08]
 
John McCain wants to evict Russia from the G8 and not invite China.  McCain said the G8 should become "a club of leading market democracies: It should include Brazil and India but exclude Russia." McCain would also exclude China from this expanded G8.  While it is certainly important to involve countries like Brazil and India in the efforts to address the current financial crises, as well as future issues, there are few global challenges, especially today's crisis, that can be addressed without the participation of Russia and China.  [Reuters, 10/15/07]
 
John McCain engaged in the anti-French bashing of the far right because they opposed the invasion of the war. "The Lord said the poor will always be with us, and the French will be with us, too," said McCain, a member of the Armed Services Committee. "This is part of a continuing French practice of throwing sand in the gears of the Atlantic alliance. But now they're playing a dangerous game, and coming close to rendering themselves irrelevant." A few days later he even likened France to an aging '40s starlet "still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it." This is the same country that brokered the cease fire between Georgia and Russia. [NY Times, 2/13/03. NY Times, 9/30/08]
 
McCain attacked Germany for opposing the war - saying they lacked "political courage." McCain said that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder "looks little like the ally that anchored our presence in Europe throughout the Cold War. A German Rip Van Winkle from the 1960s would not understand the lack of political courage and cooperation with its allies on the question of Iraq exhibited in Berlin today." This is hardly the language of a world leader looking to work with his counterparts around the globe to solve the serious challenges of our time. [John McCain, 2/13/03]