2008 G-20 Washington summit

The G-20 Leaders Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy took place on November 14–15, 2008, in Washington, D.C. It achieved general agreement amongst the G-20 on how to cooperate in key areas so as to strengthen economic growth, deal with the financial crisis, and lay the foundation for reform to avoid similar crises in the future.^[1][2] The Summit resulted from an initiative by the French and European Union President, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.^[3] In connection with the G7 finance ministers on October 11, 2008, United States President George W. Bush stated that the next meeting of the G-20 would be important in finding solutions to the economic crisis. Since many economists and politicians called for a new Bretton Woods system (a monetary management which was instituted after World War II) to overhaul the world’s financial structure, the meeting has sometimes been described by the media as Bretton Woods II.^[1]