U.K.’s Brown Crams In Meetings With Top U.S. Economists

Alistair MacDonald reports on the G-20 meeting. If you can tell the type of leader by the company they keep, during his trip to the U.S. Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown has shown himself true to the serious economics brain most thought he was. Among the meetings with other world leaders that politicians cram into big institutional gatherings such as this Saturday’s meeting of the G-20 group of nations in Washington, Brown has slotted in two economists, the former and current chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, and a former and the current U.S. Treasury chief. While his predecessor Tony Blair was seen holidaying with show business pals and often invited rock and media stars to Downing Street, Brown’s reign has been somewhat more academic. Arriving in New York on Thursday, the prime minister sought out Nobel Prize winning economists Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz . On Friday morning, Brown, who was the U.K. treasury chief for a decade before becoming ... (link)