Yeah! You want to see an international throwdown? Propose an international financial tax to the U.S. You think we’ve sent out troops and secret missions in the last 50 years? Don’t mess with the financial rules, my friends.

The G20, fresh from its third meeting of the year (yikes!) is still cautious about being optimistic, and, in fact, is cautious about doing anything at all. It’s one of those situations where everyone is feeling the heat from home, everyone is somewhat aware of a deep, deep problem, but everyone is also unwilling to really do anything about it.

Sounds like Britain presented a plan to make banks pay for future bailouts by creating a global financial transactions tax. I can’t even imagine where that money would go- would it end up with the IMF? The World Bank? Some new industry?

In theory, it’s not a horrible idea- take a small, perhaps tiny, percentage of the transactions that banks make with each other around the world and put it somewhere for a rainy day. It’s pretty much the savings idea that banks have been trying to avoid for, well, forever. Nobody wants to be charged extra for doing business, and this kind of a tax will never pass by the United States. In fact, the U.S. immediately shot down the idea.

G20 be warned- you can plan all you like, but don’t try to charge the U.S. banking system any money. And try to make them responsible for their own bailout? Have you been watching the news over here? We can hardly control the outcry over cutting the BONUSES for people who work for firms that would have been BANKRUPT without government help. Voluntary saving in case of emergency is absolutely out of the question.

What the G20 did walk away with is handshakes all around not to stop handing out money and not to raise interest rates. They will come together again in late January 2010 to present policy plans and recommendations, and hopefully get on the same page. It’s a good thing that they all agree to keep handing out the money and interest rates low, as that will keep everyone running even during the slow recovery.

I’ll be interested to see how the Copenhagen summit affects financial policy around the world- if there is, miraculously, some kind of agreement made that requires money to change hands from the developed / rich nations to the developing ones, that will have a significant impact on currency values and GDP’s. The EU is currently proposing $100 Billion per year for a decade at least to go to developing countries to deal with issues resulting from climate change. It’s probably necessary and some form of it will probably happen- how will handing out $1 trillion beyond their own borders affect industrialized nations? Perhaps they will work it out so that the money gets spent to companies from industrialized countries and they don’t really end up losing the money afterall. Who knows.

What is clear is that the world, while syncing financial policies, will not be taxing the banks for doing their own business.