The G20 Summit here in London finished two days ago, amid much feigned interest, mild controversy and even milder actual interest. Almost the textbook definition of what is normally considered a stereotypical political talking shop, by virtue of the extraordinary circumstances, was actually a fairly big deal. 
The festivities (no, wait, what's the opposite of festivities?) took off in style with President Obama meeting Queen Elizabeth II, and soliciting his wife to manhandle her. Thereafter Mr. Berlusconi made a fool out of himself by doing his best Little Rascals face between Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev, seen left gesturing wildly at their respective secret service snipers.
The actual summit was surprisingly productive. The focus was more on saving capitalism rather than reforming it. Lots of money was given to the IMF (amounting to about $750 billion) ostensibly to pass on to developing countries in loans. Fantastical amounts of money were accounted for fiscal expansion (that is, the government spending more money on programmes and projects, often to create jobs where the private sector is cutting them), amounting to over $5 trillion.
Talk of actually reforming the financial system was thin on the ground, with resolutions to begin to monitor "systemically important hedge funds", and to begin to regulate excessive leverage. There wasn't much commitment on international standards on finance either, beyond a token dictum on the importance of "internationally agreed high standards", and changing the name of the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) to the Financial Stability Board (FSB), which will have the exact same members, with no indication of any specific change in function.
In terms of politicking, in brief: The USA wanted less regulation and more funds to support fiscal expansion, Europe wanted more regulation but dragged its feet on the money. The G20 was very shrill about its commitment to the developing countries, presumably to make up for the fact that no strategically unimportant poor countries were allowed to attend.
Everyone agrees that the world is going to hell in a handbasket for one reason or another (This man's been predicting it with frightening regularity and speed for a while now). This is exactly why the G20 summit was a good thing, and why it's important that people recognise that it is a good thing.
Expanding the realm of substantive international policy-making from the G7 to the G20 is a wonderful thing, even if there is still an enragingly long way to go. Conferences such as these actually work, too. Pledges were made, and though they probably won't be followed through on completely, funds will be raised and legislation will be written. Politics isn't a technical exercise, there are hundreds of degrees between failure and success, and it's in those spaces that progress is made. This isn't rocket science. It's much harder.
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