The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the national unemployment rate climbed to 8.5 percent from 8.1 percent in February, its highest levels in a quarter-century, as employers raced to cut their payroll costs. It was the 15th consecutive month of job losses. [source]

[...G20 Leaders...] committed to $1.1 trillion in additional loans and guarantees to finance trade and bail out troubled countries. [...] Giving teeth to an endorsement of free trade at the last summit in Washington, the countries agreed to “name and shame” countries that erected trade barriers. They also pledged $250 billion in financing for trade. [...] The Group of 20 pledged to triple the resources of the International Monetary Fund to $750 billion — through a mix of $500 billion in loans from countries, and a one-time issuance of $250 billion in Special Drawing Rights, the synthetic currency of the Fund, which will be parceled out to all its 185 members. [...] Britain began talks on Wednesday on a tax information exchange agreement with Liechtenstein, an Alpine principality used by wealthy Europeans and others as a place to stash money. [source]

The changes seem likely to allow banks to report higher profits by assuming that the securities are worth more than anyone is currently willing to pay for them. [..] The banks have argued that the market values of some securities, principally mortgage-backed securities, are now far below the real value that will be realized over time. They argue that being forced to take such losses has hurt their capital positions and worsened the financial crisis. Banks have long been required to value some assets at their current market value, but the rule has provided an exception allowing banks to disregard “distress” sales that do not accurately reflect real market values. [source]

The vote was relatively controversial, with hostility to the vote coming in part from the Investors Working Group, headed by two former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Arthur Levitt Jr. and William H. Donaldson, who saw the vote as allowing political pressure to alter bare economic numbers and truths.

“The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued proposed regulations yesterday that are expected to exempt national banks from many state laws against predatory lending…” [source]

This was primarily because Federal Law regarding subprime and predatory lending was not only much more lax on offenders than State law, but it was also a regulatory standard that could be brought entirely under the control of the (Republican, so-called States Rights party dominated) Federal Government. (Incidentally, a similar thing occurred with the California State right to impose stricter Pollution controls than the EPA… currently the source of many state vs. federal lawsuits.) Many State laws, in particular, Georgia’s 2002 Fair Lending Act, which threatened strict penalties for engaging in predatory practices, had a regulatory effect on overheated loan markets:

“Inevitably, the secondary mortgage market in Georgia’s subprime loans ground to a halt. And that was the point: If buyers couldn’t satisfy themselves that the loans weren’t predatory, they should take their money elsewhere. Georgia legislators understood that impeding the capital flow to subprime loans might raise the cost of borrowing for some with poor credit but judged that this was more than balanced by protecting the most vulnerable from the scourge of predatory lending…” [source]

The regulations came into law in 2004. State legislatures in effect gave up on trying to regulate their now superseded regulatory powers. Georgia altered its state law to help state institutions compete against the National banks.

The OCC issued regulations in early 2004 nullifying the state laws as they applied to national banks. The agency reasoned in part that the states just got it wrong. As the then-comptroller explained in a 2003 speech: “We know that it’s possible to deal effectively with predatory lending without putting impediments in the way of those who provide access to legitimate subprime credit.” [source]

Collectively, the G-20 economies comprise 85%[3] of global gross national product, 80% of world trade (including EU intra-trade) and two-thirds of the world population. [source]

The 20 countries currently involved are: Argentina, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, China, South Africa, France, South Korea, Germany, Turkey, India, United Kingdom, Indonesia, United States, and Italy. The 20th member is the European Union, mostly represented by the European Central Bank chair.

Also a present voice in the G20 are the four major global banking and monetary institutions; the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the International Monetary and Financial Committee, and the Development Committee of the IMF and World Bank.