The G20 summoned a new age of austerity that will see governments cut hundreds of billions of dollars in public spending in an unprecedented moment of co-ordinated belt-tightening.

If they don't balk, the world's wealthy nations will embark on a harsh round of deficit-cutting during the next three years that will see their citizens confront cuts to public services and entitlements such as pensions, or tax hikes. The end result made clear that fears of national-debt crisis roiling financial markets beat out concerns - raised by the United States, India, Brazil, and Argentina - that cutting spending could tilt the global economy back into recession. There was underlying fear that failing to make progress in cleaning up public finances could leave countries unable to respond to another global economic crisis.

Read the entire Globe and Mail article here.