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G-8 Summit: World Leaders Meet at Camp David Here’s a look at the eight leaders who will be meeting at Camp David, Md., and a summary of the pressing issues their countries are facing.
Stephen Harper. Position: prime minister; Country: Canada
Canada went through a round of fiscal and banking problems in the 1990s that left it with strengthened government accounts and a financial system that weathered the 2008 crisis without the severe problems that hit the United States and other developed nations. Harper is a fiscal conservative, and, presiding over an economy that accelerated quickly in 2010, hastened plans to balance the government budget. But the Canadian economy has since slowed to roughly U.S. levels, and Harper is, like his G-8 colleagues, facing calls to slow the drive to a balanced budget and use public funds to support growth.
BLAIR GABLE
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REUTERS
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Francois Hollande. Position: president; Country: France
Hollande takes power at a difficult time for France and the European Union. Advocating growth as a way to get out of the current economic crisis, he has pledged to renegotiate the EU's austerity treaty, which will require reaching agreement with a reluctant Germany. He and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, also will have to work hand in hand to prevent Greece from collapsing, which would endanger the euro, the common EU currency, and the entire ideal of European unity.
Kristy Sparow
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GETTY IMAGES
Angela Merkel. Position: chancellor; Country: Germany
Germany's unemployment levels are the lowest they have been since West and East Germany reunited in 1990, and the country feels little of the economic pain facing the rest of Europe. But its economy, too, has been slowing. Europe's austerity push comes from industrial powerhouse Germany, where leaders believe that excess debt was the cause of the crisis. Germany pushed through painful structural measures in the early 2000s, cutting unemployment benefits and making it easier to hire and fire workers. But it credits its current prosperity to those changes. Merkel has signaled recently that she is open to more growth measures -- but not to abandoning austerity.
Sean Gallup
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GETTY IMAGES
Mario Monti. Position: prime minister; Country: Italy
Monti is the unelected technocrat helming Italy’s transitional government after its controversial leader, Silvio Berlusconi, was pressured into stepping down. He has sought to impose tough austerity measures on a debt-laden nation in crisis, though he has also said Europe should now begin to focus on growth. He has earned points for his steady hand, but is facing stiff resistance to key labor and other reforms economists say Italy needs to regain its competitive edge and a vital path to growth.
Yves Logghe
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yoshihiko Noda. Position: prime minister; Country: Japan
A fiscal hawk, Noda is trying to ease international concerns about Japan’s massive debt — and its escalating social security costs — by pushing for a divisive consumption-tax hike. Those efforts come at a time when Japan’s fiscal health has further eroded because of a nationwide nuclear shutdown that has forced the country to import pricey fossil fuels and incur a once-unthinkable trade deficit. But Japan, one of the euro zone’s largest creditors, is also vulnerable to the European debt crisis, and Noda’s finance minister has warned new French leader Francois Hollande to stick with austerity plans, rather than trying to drive growth with new spending.
Petar Kujundzic
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AP
Dmitri Medvedev. Position: prime minister; Country: Russia
Medvedev, who is substituting for President Vladimir Putin, represents a country that is on the periphery of these discussions. Russia's economy is dependent on exports of gas and oil, and will suffer accordingly if there is a European downturn, but there is little Russia could do about it. Russia is not heavily in debt (9.5 percent of GDP) and no one in Moscow argues for austerity.
Yekaterina Shtukina
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AP
David Cameron. Position: prime minister; Country: The United Kingdom
Cameron arrives at the G-8 at a time when Britain has plunged back into recession during his government’s crusade for fiscal austerity. Cameron, a Conservative, has argued that the slashing of the deficit must continue nevertheless. At the same time, he has ruffled feathers on the other side of the English Channel by suggesting the nations of the euro zone -- of which Britain is not a member -- must take more decisive action or see their currency union “break up.”
SUZANNE PLUNKETT
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REUTERS
Barack Obama. Position: president; Country: The United States
The U.S. economy is growing and the unemployment rate is edging down, but not fast enough to instill confidence about the strength of what remains a weak recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. Hard decisions about entitlement spending and taxes are on the horizon. Obama has continued pursuing stimulus programs long after most developed countries abandoned them, a luxury allowed by the dollar's status as a safe-haven investment.
Haraz N. Ghanbari
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AP
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