The hastily conceived upcoming financial summit, which is of the States, by the States, and for the States, won’t do anything about the scandalous State practices that frame the financial crisis. Leaders are not even mentioning their central banks, their inflations, their deficits, their taxes, their misconceived regulations, their inept and disastrous bailout packages, and their currency manipulations. The international financial system is not about to be reformed by these hypocrites.

They’re all looking out for themselves. Germany complains about Swiss tax havens. France complains about tax havens in Monaco, Cayman Islands, and other small European countries. France sees a chance to gain leadership in Euroland. France as usual doesn’t want its companies to be taken over by foreigners. The usual calls for limits on executive pay abound when what is needed is to repeal the Williams Act and measures that protect companies from proxy fights and takeovers. Countries that didn’t regulate the loans of their own banks blame the U.S. for its lax regulation and call for “regulated capitalism” rather than “free market capitalism.” They would not recognize a free market if they fell over it. These are code words for the European brand of bureaucratic suffocation as opposed to the American brand of Congressional and Fed manipulation, guided by campaign contributions, lobbyists, and corruption.