On Thursday, leaders from the world's largest wealthy and developing nations will come together to discuss ways to support the economic recovery and create safeguards for future disasters. US President Barack Obama, hosting his first Group of 20 summit, has outlined an agenda that includes addressing the significant imbalances between countries like China and the US. Expectations for the summit are not very high in the short term, as there is limited agreement on how to achieve goals such as creating a more balanced global economy and preventing risky lending practices by banks. The two-day meeting in Pennsylvania will begin with bilateral talks on Thursday. Obama is hosting a reception and working dinner in the evening, marking the third gathering of the G20 leaders since a meeting held shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. This event marked the beginning of a severe global recession, impacting even countries that had initially avoided the banking crisis due to a significant drop in global trade. As many countries are now seeing the end of the recession, there is a need for the G20 to maintain the same level of urgency seen in April when they agreed to collaborate in order to rescue the world economy and provide financial support to the International Monetary Fund. Despite various distractions, the importance of global economic cooperation remains paramount. Obama is dealing with various domestic issues, including his efforts to reform the U.S. healthcare system. Angela Merkel is preparing for an upcoming election. US Treasury Secretary Geithner emphasized the need for the United States to increase savings, indicating that countries relying on US consumption for their growth will need to find alternative sources. Geithner made these remarks ahead of a meeting with G20 officials. However, some countries were hesitant to impose strict limits on trading imbalances and were resistant to the idea of outside interference in domestic economic policies by entities like the G20 or the International Monetary Fund. Geithner clarified that this was not the goal, but due to these concerns, it was unlikely that the G20 would agree to anything more than basic ideas for rebalancing. To illustrate the magnitude of the issue, China's private consumption is only around a third of its economy, while in the US and UK, consumption made up almost three-quarters of the economy during prosperous times. On the other hand, Chinese and Indian households saved approximately 40% and 32% of their disposable incomes last year, in contrast to the US savings rate of just 3.2%. Many European leaders were advocating for the G20 to prioritize cracking down on excessive pay and bonuses for bankers whose risky investments resulted in losses. They also hoped to see more effort from the United States regarding climate change, but were not expecting significant progress at this particular meeting. The United States is running out of time to implement concrete policies before an international conference on reducing global warming in Copenhagen in December. Emerging economies like Brazil, despite having limited exposure to bad assets during the financial crisis, were eager to reach consensus on stricter regulatory measures at the G20 summit. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva criticized the economic models that downplayed regulation as outdated and ineffective.