“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.” — Milton Friedman
(Reuters) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy called in a speech laying out his G20 agenda Monday for new rules to curb commodity price volatility, warning that the world risks food riots and weaker growth if leaders fail to act.
Speaking to 300 diplomats and journalists in the Elysee presidential palace, Sarkozy also voiced support for a tax on financial transactions, calling such a move a “moral question” but admitting the idea had many enemies.
“How can you explain that we regulate money markets and not commodities?,” said Sarkozy, who holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20, a policy forum for the world’s leading rich and developing economies, for 2011.