Brown

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Browns Speech after Londons G20 Summit
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Background
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James Gordon Brown (born on 20 February, 1951) is
the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and
Leader of the Labor Party. Brown became Prime
Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of
Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader
of the governing Labor Party. Brown has a PhD in
history from the University of Edinburgh and
spent his early career working as a television
journalist. He has been a Member of Parliament
since 1983 first for Dunfermline East and since
2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.
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As Prime Minister, he also holds the offices of
First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for
the Civil Service. Browns time as Chancellor was
marked by major reform of Britain's monetary and
fiscal policy architecture, transferring interest
rate setting powers to the Bank of England, by a
wide extension of the powers of the Treasury to
cover much domestic policy and by transferring
responsibility for banking supervision to the
Financial Services Authority.
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London Summit On 2 April 2009, world leaders
from the G20 countries representing 85 of the
worlds output met in London. They met against
the backdrop of the worst international banking
crisis in generations. The London Summit took
place at a time when the world confronts the
worst economic crisis since the Second World War.
Building on the outcome of the Washington Summit
in November 2008, the aims of the London summit
were to bring together leaders of the worlds
major economies and key international
institutions to take the collective
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action necessary to stabilise the world economy
and secure recovery and jobs.  Real action was
agreed at the London Summit including detailed
commitments to strengthen the financial system
and additional resources amounting to 1.1
trillion dollars to support jobs and growth
across the World. The London Summit was chaired
by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the UK
currently has the Chair for the G20 Finance
Ministers meeting.  
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Words and Expressions
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consensus agreement in the judgment or opinion
reached by a group as a whole e.g. Also,
because they are a group activity, focus groups
tend to drive to consensus. The majority or
loudest opinion often becomes the group opinion.
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pledge a deposit of personal property as
security for a debt a binding commitment to do
or give or refrain from something e.g. The
property was pledged as security for loans
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hedge fund a flexible investment company for a
small number of large investors (usually the
minimum investment is 1 million) can use
high-risk techniques (not allowed for mutual
funds) such as short-selling and heavy leveraging
e.g. In nineteen ninety-eight, a major hedge
fund got into financial trouble and almost failed.
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tax haven a country or independent region where
taxes are low e.g. The first of the less
worrying sort involves moving a physical
business such as a manufacturing plant to a tax
haven and then attributing as much profit to it
as possible.
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compliant accepting or submitting without
objection or resistance e.g. A compliant person
gives in easily to other people's views.
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toxic asset The term "toxic asset" is a
nontechnical term used to describe certain
financial assets when their value has fallen
significantly and when there is no longer a
functioning market for these assets, so that they
cannot be reasonably sold. e.g. Toxic assets
played a major role in the financial crisis that
began in August 2007.
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unprecedented having no precedent novel e.g.
Science and technology have come to pervade every
aspect of our lives and, as a result, society is
changing at a speed which is quite unprecedented.
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injection the forceful insertion of a substance
under pressure any solution that is injected (as
into the skin) e.g. Many scholars were annoyed
by his injection of politics into academic
discussions.
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communiqué an official report (usually sent in
haste) e.g. In his recent letter of
congratulations to President Jiang on the
occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Shanghai
Communiqué, President Bush also expressed
precisely the same view.
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special drawing rights Special Drawing Rights
(SDRs) are potential claims on the freely usable
currencies of International Monetary Fund
members. e.g. The value of the national
currency, in terms of the Special Drawing Right,
of a State which is not a member of the
International Monetary Fund, shall be calculated
in a manner determined by that State.
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reserve currency a currency that is used as
international reserves, often because it is an
intervention currency e.g. The euro should
constitute an important reserve currency and play
a key role in portfolios of financial assets on
an international scale.
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treble increase threefold e.g. Profits in our
company have trebled in the last two years.
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surveillance the monitoring of the behavior of a
person or group of people, often in a
surreptitious manner e.g. The personnel of
organs of state must accept surveillance by the
masses.
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mandate assign authority to e.g. The
government gave the police a mandate to reduce
crime.
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