The global economic crisis that has swept the world has garnered some serious attention from the world's leading countries, prompting them to send their finance ministers to London in an effort to discuss and plan a coordinated ‘attack' against the recession that is looming over the world. The agenda for the summit has already been put into place and the leaders are hoping that they can come to some form of resolution to tackle the current economic downturn, the worst one since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The G20 nations - Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the US and the EU - make up 85% of the global world economy, and they are hoping to focus on increased and tougher bank regulations and how they can provide more funds in an effort to help with the crisis. The summit will be hosted by the United Kingdom, and the twenty nations involved will have to find a way to work together for the world's common good if economic recovery is to be expected.

Disagreements have already been mentioned about how much money the governments should be spending in an effort to pull their countries out of the recessions they are starting into. The nations of Europe feel that less spending is what is needed, while the United States feels that further government spending is the answer. Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, commented, "In Europe we have already invested a lot for the recovery [and that the priority should be] putting in place a system of regulation so that the economic and financial catastrophe the world is seeing does not reproduce itself." However, China, like the United States, has expressed that they will be launching a new economic stimulus plan sometime in 2009, stating that they had enough ‘economic ammunition' to work with.

While there may be difference of opinion regarding how much money to sink back into their individual nations, the G20 has agreed to increase the resources of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This fund is used to lend money to poorer countries that are experiencing financial difficulties, and there has been a proposed resources increase ranging between $500 and $750 billion dollars. Plus, the nations are expecting to get into some heated debates regarding tax haven regulations which will put pressure on Switzerland to ease up on their secrecy laws, and is seeing the Island of Jersey as the site of demonstrations outside of ten different banking institutions because of their offshore tax havens.

According to UK Chancellor Alistair Darling, the tougher regulations of banks and financial institutions will be a key point on the G20 summit agenda. He is hoping to see banks forced to hold more capital reserves before lending recommences and legislation put in place to keep banks from over-extending themselves. Additionally, there will be discussions on who will regulate the banks, how bonuses and pay will be applied with the new regulations put into place, and insurance measures placed in the regulations to keep senior bank management from taking excess risks that could cause another major banking collapse.