SOVEREIGNTY?  WHAT'S THAT? - AT 12:47 P.M. ET: 

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- World leaders agreed on a regulatory blueprint for reining in the excesses that fed the worst financial crisis in six decades and pledged more than $1 trillion in emergency aid to cushion the economic fallout.

The Group of 20 policy makers, meeting in London, called for stricter limits on hedge funds, executive pay, credit-rating companies and risk-taking by banks. They also boosted the resources of the International Monetary Fund and offered cash to revive trade to help governments weather the economic and social turmoil. They sidestepped the question of whether to deliver more fiscal stimulus in their own economies.

The G-20 statement amounts to an effort to rewrite the rules of capitalism to address an integrated world economy that has outgrown the ability of individual governments to keep it in check. The group, which represents 85 percent of the world economy, devised a model for how finance should be regulated everywhere in a bid to prevent a repeat of the market turbulence which has roiled the world for almost two years.

COMMENT:  Anyone who reads Urgent Agenda knows that we are no friend to incompetent, overpaid "executives" or childlike, fast-buck "investors."  We prefer real free enterprise and real, responsible, visionary capitalism. 

That having been said, and recognizing the problems that the G20 are trying to address, I don't want American economic policy set by a gang of leaders beholden to socialist powers in their own countries.  This president, I fear, will have no problem surrendering a chunk of American sovereignty for "change" that will create a fast feel-good effect, and ultimate disaster. 

I happen to believe in American exceptionalism.  I think we are unique, and part of our uniqueness is a ferocious sense of independence and respect for the individual.  Those are weak causes around the world, and I'm not confident that Mr. Obama will defend them.

April 2, 2009