Alright friends let's talk G now. G money that is, with the G7, the G8, the G20. The G stands for group, not G-money but hell it's appropriate, because all of these entities, the seven, eight, and then twenty, are all or were the biggest economies at the time or now. That's what the whole basis of this grouping is all about. The G7 actually kind of formed up from the G6, which started just after World War II, and it is a group of states where the finance ministers and central bankers of those countries get together, maybe several times a year, to talk all things economic, and finance policy, and monetary policy, and everything that goes along with that, to coordinate their going to do with each other in the coming year so they can all get together better, work together, all keep themselves as the richest seven countries on the planet. That went on for decades, wait a minute, maybe I've gotten ahead of myself. Who are the G7? Who are the big seven say back forty or fifty years ago? Who, do you think the biggest seven economies were? Obviously, the United States, and Canada, France, the Germans, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Those were the seven biggest economies at the time, but this is actually often overlooked, they weren't the top seven because obviously fifty years ago the USSR, the Soviet Union, was certainly one of the biggest economies on the planet so really, we should put in this disclaimer that the G7, the G6, and the G7 started up as the richest democratic countries on the planet and of course all those G7 countries were allies. So, the richest democracies getting together to coordinate economic and financial policy, that's what the G7 was all about and as I told you this is kind of an illegitimate super nationalist organization though because they don't got no rules, they don't sign no contracts, there's no charter, there's no constitution, they just get together to kind of loosely coordinate and talk about, what are you guys gonna do this year, what are you guys investing in, and let's talk about our you know our monetary unit, let's make sure that we're not competing with each other and let's all kind of loosely coordinator stuff so that we all stay as the richest seven countries on the planet, cause they ain't getting together to talk about in the world peace or the world economy or helping other poor nations, no, no, no, no, loosely coordinating their own financial policies between them so that they stay rich. Okay, that was the G7, been around since the end of World War II, but it grew to the G8 and maybe you've already had the light bulb go off, ding! Who would have been added to the seven to make it eight? And that of course was Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia then was a big world economy that was also democratic, so they got invited to the club. How democratic they are in today's world is kidding sketch, but it was a gesture of goodwill to get the major economic powers together you know once or twice a year to coordinate what's going on between them. Again, no contracts or documents were signed, there's nothing legally binding about anything they talked about or did. It was more like a kind of a fireside chat between eight friends. And I should differentiate this as well, when you hear the old G7 acronym, that was referring to meetings of just the finance ministers and central bank's of those seven countries, when you hear the term G8 that is actually a meeting of the heads of state of those eight countries. Alright? And the G8 summit is what they'll call it and it'll be the presidents and prime ministers of the big eight to get together to, again, fireside chat about what they should be investing in, in monetary policy, what their central banks are doing, and interest rates they might have for the coming year, all things economic, again, to help each other stay in the richest category. Now, it's been kind of attacked in the past as not being very representative of the planet cause it's not. Again, it's not an elected body this is after World War II these country said, hey let's get together and chill and increasingly people have looked at it and said what's the point of this? You G7 or you G8 countries who used to be the richest countries in the world, you think you're gonna get together in coordinate policy, and you think you have some chance of doing that without China there? The fastest-growing economy on planet Earth, the number-two economy on planet earth. You think you're actually going to decide on something without them? There at the table or about India another country with a billion people a huge growing economy. How can you possibly coordinate economic policy between you, when you guys aren't even the sole primary players anymore? Hahahaha, and that is true my friends, and it's a sign of the changing times and that's why I want you to know the G20. That's the new hot big thing because the G8 has grown by a dozen. A nice even dozen donuts join this meeting every year. Now, it's called the G20. Well who got added in then? Well you had the G7 and you add Russia you got G8, now add these to get to 20; Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea Turkey, and as if they didn't have enough voice in the world, the EU gets another single seat for the entire EU president, which means actually if you think about it that some of these countries almost get like a double vote, because France is a member of the EU and France is at the meeting and the EU president's at the meeting as well. Alright, even throwing out that little disclaimer about the EU president having a seat there, here's why I get excited about the G20 my friends, cause it is much more representative of planet Earth and not just representative of you know the rich people, but it's actually more, think about it, ethnically, and religiously, and financially, and a culturally diverse. You got, at least now, some countries from all over the planet. You got South Africa in there from Africa, Brazil and Argentina in there, Mexico. That's why a lot of people are surprised when you list off the G20, like Mexico's on top 20 economy? Yes, as is, Indonesia from Southeast Asia. And of course you've got to have the giants of China and India at the table if you truly, now, want to coordinate any sort of global economic policy, cause that's the kicker. Forty years ago, the G7 could handle it all on their own because they were the lion's share of what was happening on planet earth and they could coordinate between them without really caring about the rest of the world, but as the economy of the world has globalized more, and more, and more, and more, and gotten bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and now you have more strategic bigger players like China India. The G7 is a joke. In fact, it probably won't even mean anything anymore. What would the point possibly be? When you're looking at the G20, it is truly more representative, just economically, of what's going on in the world, but also dig this, the G20 economies comprise 85 percent of world GDP. Wow, just these twenty, eighty-five percent of the world's economic action GDP wise. It also has 80 percent of all global trade. Just these G20 and, in what is perhaps the most representative part of this, two-thirds of the human population currently alive are in these G20 countries. Alright, well at least it's a little more representative because if you dig this, think about this, the G7 was basically like a little white man's club. Oh, yeah, they threw in a Japanese dude to spritz it up, but it was all European in American white dudes pretty much determining and and a shaping global economic policy and into today's world, that shit just don't play. And as I've now said 10 times you're not going to decide anything global, economic, policy wise without having China at the table. What a joke. So, the G20 is much more reflective of bigger things that are happening on the globe that I get very excited about. This is a sign of the shifting times that we are living through and the other reason I really like it and really get excited about it is that it's very functional. A lot of people really hate the G20, they hated the G7 and G8 before it, because they say, but it's not democratic, those people aren't elected, why the hell and they get to affect all the policy of the world? But I love it because it is a much more effective grouping and here's why. It's more representative, that's nice, but think about what the UN does. How much stuff gets through the UN, if we're just thinking economically? What are a hundred and ninety two countries of the United Nations going to enact, legislatively speaking, to do anything about the economy? What are 192 countries going to agree on period? And the answer is nothing ever, which is why they don't. The alternative, of course, is the G7. What can that little white man's club agree on? Well, quite a lot, but they're increasingly not representative of what's happening in the global economy. The G20 is somewhere in between. It is kind of a functioning, working group. And this is what I really want you to understand and learn, for the rest of your life, no country or no entity is going to take legislation to the United Nation without going through the G20 first. If that sounds bizarre, let me play this out for you. Here's why that is. The UN is too complicated, there's too many voices, there's too much fighting, there's too much going on and if you actually are serious about trying to get your legislation passed, no matter if it's about a war or a peacekeeping operation or an economic policy, what countries actually have the most voice in the world, it's these G20. So you might as well push it through them first to see if it even has a chance at the United Nations, and I'm thinking specifically of things here like environmental policy. They've been bickering about having some sort of international environmental law and environmental pacts and greenhouse gas emissions and all that shit, they've been debating that stuffing UN for 30 years, its produced nothing. Why? Because one or more these G20 countries have said, we're not going to back that. And they're powerful enough to basically nix it. So, what I'm suggesting is if you want your environmental law or environmental legislation passed through the United Nations at a global scale, why bother going to the whole entity at one time? Go to the G20 first and make your case and get the G20 countries to collaborate together at a meeting and decide these twenty, what can you live, with what can't you live with, how do we manipulate this, how can we get everybody on board? And if you can get it through the powerful G20, then the likelihood is that it will pass the United Nations. Think about the entire Permanent Security Council of the UN is here on the g20 board too. You see what I'm talking about about these coordinating policies? I think the G20 is for the rest of our lives going to be kind of like the clarence house of how things are going to get done. The G7 and G8 were too exclusionary. They don't have enough power in the world anymore to do stuff just those seven or eight, the G20 has got a hell of a lot more clout because they are more globally representative of what's going on and they have a hell of a lot of power economically and militarily and politically even at the United Nations. That's why I get excited about, the twenty. And they now have it yearly summit, by the way this is kind of new, only since 2008 they started having these summits and they've had them in Washington, then in London, then in Pittsburgh, and the next one's actually in Seoul, South Korea coming up here very soon, so and the Presidents and Prime Minister's, heads of states, attend these things this is the most significant, serious, grouping of countries for problem solving that we probably are going to have in the world for the foreseeable future, and on this note though, just like the G7 and G8, there is no contracts drawn up, there's no binding legislation, there's nothing that forces these guys legally to vote on anything, or to adhere to a vote on anything. So, it is mostly a talking group, but telling you I love it because how else is shit gonna get done? G20, that's how.