WILL the G20 meeting have much of an impact on financial markets? If this were a typical G7 meeting, the answer would definitely be no. But the idea of expanding these meetings to ionclude developing nations would that decisions taken would have both more clout and more legitimacy.

Even so, it is hard to see what the markets are likely to take out of all this. Let us start with the need for fiscal stimulus; it sounds like governments will talk the talk but not do anything they hadn't already planned to do. On currencies and trade, they may give lip service to avoiding protectionism or competitive devaluations, but then go home and carry on as before.

On regulation, the suggested reforms sound reasonable and will not frighten the horses. More transparency from hedge funds? Managers will worry more about the pace of redemptions. Contra-cyclcial capital for banks? A good idea but one that will only bite during the next boom, which looks a long way ahead. More controls on compensation? Again, the real test will only come when the masters of the universe are generating huge profits for their parents during the next stockmarket/property/corporate bond bubble. Macroprudential regulation, with a college of wise men opining on systemic risk? Let us see how Wall Street reacts in, say 2015, when some committee in Frankfurt tells them it's time to cut back. 

That takes us to the IMF, which needs more money if it is to help with the rising need for bailouts. Bank of America Merrill Lynch (as it is now known) reckons that the more the merrier, as far as markets are concerned; an extra $500 billion would be positive, $400 billion would be market-neutral while just $250 billion would be seen as a disappointment. A good chunk of all this has to come from the US itself, so while an announcement may play well in the markets, it will be interesting to see how it goes down in Congress.

My guess is that, by Thursday night, the markets will have forgotten about the G20 and will have gone back to worrying about non-farm payroll data due on Friday. 

UPDATE: To answer umarsaeed, investors can't call in Treasury bills, or indeed Treasury bonds, which I suspect is what you mean. They can sell them in the open market and they can refuse to buy any more. Both actions would result, other things being equal, in prices falling and yield rising.

But there is a big problem - the size of the holdings already accumulated by China, Japan and middle east oil producers.  You can't just sell $100 billion of bonds; nobody else has the resources to buy them. And if you can't sell ALL of your holdings, then any attempt to sell a significant proportion will drag down the value of the rest. The debtors and the creditors are stuck in each others' embrace.