On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the global economy will grow next year, but cautioned the recovery will be sluggish. The IMF added that the recovery could even "stall out" if policymakers assume the slump is over. The IMF's recent outlook, however, is better than July's outlook, as the IMF predicts better growth in 2010 thanks to "strong public policies ... that have supported demand and all but eliminated fears of a global depression."

As for the recovery, the IMF believes that it will be subdued and "well below" the growth seen before the economic crisis. The group added that there is a "significant risk" of a reversal, noting that central banks in advanced economies need to wait until the recovery is on firm footing.

The newspapers are looking ahead to this Tuesday's G-20 summit in London. Since the leaders who show up there represent countries that control 80% of the world's economy, it could be an important meeting. If you live in the U.K. or U.S., your leaders will be attacked by those in other countries who believe that they should not be asked to bail out the errors of Anglo-American capitalism. Beyond that, little of substance is likely to be accomplished.

However, in an alternative universe, the G-20 meeting might actually accomplish something. Specifically, it could get agreement on six principles on which to rebuild American capitalism. Here's what I think those would be:

• Grow through technology-based innovation. The United States used to be admired around the world for its ability to create new industries. In the 1990s, an Asian government wanted to emulate our success and asked me to discuss how the United States turns innovation into economic growth. Unfortunately, since 2000 our ability to take brilliant ideas from our top universities and turn them into venture-backed companies that sell their shares to the public to fuel the creation of new industries has largely been broken. If there is to be growth, it should come from reviving this process.

The leaders of the 20 largest economies (G-20) met in Washington over the weekend and emerged with an unsurprising and uninspiring list of prescriptions for the global economy. The markets are down in Europe and opened lower in the U.S.. The missing ingredient here is effective leadership.

It's good that the G-20 meeting had a generally cooperative spirit. But its joint communiqué rehashes conventional wisdom about the solutions to the current crisis: economic stimulus, tighter regulation, better monitoring of risk, tighter disclosure. Beyond agreeing to meet again, however, there was nothing concrete that came out of the meeting that would give me confidence that the G-20 is going to help the current situation.

What's missing is leadership that recognizes the unique nature of the current problem. Currently, leaders seem to be acting as though people want quick action and they seem to be assuming that the current crisis will respond to the same tactics that should have been applied during the Great Depression.