George Bush has defied the leaders of Europe collapse of the US lending markets has cascaded around the globe

George Bush has defied the leaders of Europe, instead calling a G20 summit in Washington for November 15 - the first of several meetings to consider how to clean up the financial mess that has its roots in the grossly inadequate regulation of the sub-prime lending market in the US. The collapse of the US lending markets has cascaded around the globe, leading to bank failures and stock market panics. And it is now bearing down on the real world economy, and threatening to plunge many nations into recession. Rudd, who refused to comment on his dealings with Bush for the preparation of this article, was not the only leader in the world to advocate broad global action on the crisis. But his success in convincing the US and the leaders of several other nations of his view signals that he has established his credentials as a genuine player on the global political stage. Perhaps more so than any of his predecessors, Rudd is bringing a new understanding to world politics - a keener sense of the subtle political changes in coming decades as economic and political power moves inexorably away from Europe and North America towards Asia.
Rudd had solicited Bush's telephone call, which came as the financial crisis reached frightening proportions. Trading on the Australian stock market that Friday saw share prices plunge by 8.3per cent.