Article snippet: With a full plate of economic issues facing them, President Obama and 19 other world leaders meet this weekend at the G20 summit, a moveable feast taking place this year in Brisbane, Australia. The world’s premier economic forum, the G20, currently is focused on pulling down trade barriers, increasing infrastructure investment, reforming financial systems, and meeting a five-year goal of adding $2 trillion to global GDP by 2018. ADVERTISEMENT But before it undertakes any of these challenges, the G20 needs to look inward. The first order of business at Brisbane should be to establish clear criteria for membership – a task the group has avoided for 15 years. The Group of 20 was founded in 1999, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, when the G7 – an alliance formed in 1976 among the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Canada – expanded, with no rules or guidelines, to include 12 other countries and the European Union. For nearly a decade, the organization drew only finance ministers and central bank governors. But following the global economic crisis of 2008, President George W. Bush gathered together the G20 heads of government for the first time, aiming to avert a financial catastrophe and, in the long term, promote economic growth and stability. But without any admissions criteria, the G20 has suffered from a lack of legitimacy and trust among the nearly 200 nations that are not part of the group but are deeply affecte... Link to the full article to read more