President Nicolas Sarkozy of France imposed tough curbs on bank bonuses. He ruled that brokers and traders defer their bonuses over three years and be paid only on performance.

Later this month, the G20 nations meet in Pittsburgh. Sarkozy wants his proposal for bank bonuses on the agenda. France wants three options debated:

• A maximum ratio of a bank's gross operating income to be earmarked for variable pay.
• A special tax on the financial sector whose revenues could be channeled into national schemes for insuring retail bank deposits.
• A straightforward limit to bonuses in terms of value.

The G 20 countries wrapped up their ground breaking summit with amazing cooperation among members. The tackled a wide range of problems and were able to agree on just about every key issue.

Let's look at some specific policies that the G 20 members agreed upon:

• Regarding the matter of stimulus, they agreed to boost the International Monetary Fund's lending power to around $750 billion.
• They also unveiled a $250 billion expansion of the IMF's reserve currency, referred to as "special drawing rights." This will boost liquidity in the global financial system by expanding member countries' foreign exchange reserves.
• They agreed to selling gold to help poor countries.

European leaders of the Group of 20 took the first step in market regulation. The leaders said that all financial products, including hedge funds must be regulated.

The leaders also said that the resources of the International Monetary Fund must be doubled to $500 billion. British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said that the increased funds should be used to help Eastern European economies.

Members who were polled agreed that "all financial markets, products and participants including hedge funds and other private pools of capital which may pose systemic risk must be subjected to appropriate oversight and regulation."

It's being hailed as the unofficial start of a new financial or economic order, sort of a postmodern Bretton Woods, but if the accomplishments are more modest, but substantive, it will be deemed a success, so says an economist.

With the global financial crisis slow growth everywhere, G-20 summit leaders meeting in Washington on Saturday would be wise to focus on one critical and consequential policy action: fiscal stimulus, so says economist David H. Wang.

Economist: focus on fiscal stimulus

"Forget this trivial fixation on 'Who's leading the summit? Is the United States still on top? Is the meeting differing from a G-8 meeting?' The summit has to focus on getting all nations with the resources to do so to commit to fiscal stimulus," Wang said. "There's also a chance for an agreement on cross-border supervision of banks and leverage regulation, but really, it will take months to work out those complex regulations, so the summit should concentrate on the broad picture, and what show of fiscal force they can make for the business community."

That means detailed, and binding, commitments to spend public dollars to stimulate growth, Wang said. China has led the way, approving a $586 billion stimulus package earlier this month. Germany has committed $62 billion. Now it's up to the United States, the European Union, and emerging market powers to announce their commitments, he said.