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At the end of Obama’s press conference following the Group of 20 Summit last Thursday, a large crowd of journalists did something journalists never do: they gave a politician a standing ovation.

In a week that began with a flurry of meetings between the US president and his counterparts from China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, Britain and others, and ends with Saturday’s NATO summit, the media’s uncharacteristic behavior might easily be forgotten. However, it will likely linger because it matched a sincere response over and above the supplication shown towards any occupant of the White House by the leaders of the G-20 countries.

The same cerebral and low-key approach used by President Obama in dealings with fellow leaders came out in often lengthy, but nuanced, answers to questions. “He actually answered the questions he was asked,” says one startled Asian reporter. President Obama he is being accorded high ratings from almost every quarter barring his conservative critics in the USA. In part, this comes because of the contrast Mr Obama strikes with the widely derided George W. Bush. Partly it has been prompted by the celebrity cult the new leader has generated in the US. But most of all, it is about Mr Obama’s unusual approach to foreigners. “I have come to listen, not to lecture,” he said several times this week.

Much of the time he appeared to mean it. The least expected endorsement came from Russia’s president Medvedev, who until he met President Obama had developed a taste for rubbing Americans the wrong way. But last Wednesday the Russian president unexpectedly invited him to visit this July, observing that Moscow’s warm weather that month would reflect the new warmth in US-Russian relations, Mr Medvedev said: “After this meeting, I am far more optimistic about the successful development of our relations and would like to thank President Obama for this opportunity.” Mark-to-Market Rule Gives More Clarity

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With the world suffering through a major credit crunch, China has suddenly gone shopping. Beijing said last week that one of its big state-owned banks, China Development Bank, agreed to lend Petrobras, the Brazilian oil giant, US$10B in exchange for a long-term supply of Crude Oil. That investment came after similar deals were signed this week with Russia and Venezuela, bringing China’s total Crude Oil investments this month to US$41B.

This month, Aluminum Corp. of China, the largest Chinese aluminum producer, agreed to invest $19.5 billion in Rio Tinto of Australia, one of the world’s biggest mining companies. And on Monday, China Min metals bid US$1.7B to acquire Oz Minerals, a huge Australian zinc mining company. The new China is flush with cash and eager to take advantage of weak commodity prices, China is once again on the hunt for global energy and resources to power its growing economy. But this time, Chinese companies are being welcomed overseas. Analysts say that China will continue to make deals this year, for a variety of small oil and natural gas companies, mineral producers and mining companies.

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U.S. consumer confidence slipped to a record low in January, and governments around the world offered further help to banks and industries battered by the global financial crisis. U.S. industry group Conference Board said its sentiment index fell to 37.7 from a revised 38.6 in December, confounding forecasts for a small uptick after Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, showed a surprise rise in business sentiment.

Japan and Britain widened their efforts to help industries hurt by slowing economies, with the UK offering loan guarantees for automakers, while sources said Russia was preparing more support for banks. Japan enacted a US$53B extra budget and said it would offer a lifeline to the small- and medium-sized companies at the heart of the world’s second-largest economy with a US$16.7B fund to buy stakes. Britain announced it would guarantee up to 2.3B pounds (US$3.25B) of loans to the car industry, much of which is foreign-owned, including Ford Motor Co, Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co..France and Italy are also planning aid while Germany and the United States have already announced plans to support automakers. In Russia, sources told Reuters that the government was set to help top bank Sberbank and other lenders with a second bailout package worth more than $27 billion.

One government source said Russia planned to offer Sberbank a 500B roubles subordinated loan. Last week, US Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner set to work overhauling a US$700B program to rescue the world’s largest economy from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. He is expected to propose new steps to unclog credit markets in the next two weeks. Canada’s budget and stimulus package will include incentives for home renovations and a promise of relief for credit card borrowers as well as tax breaks for middle- and lower-income Canadians, the Globe and Mail newspaper reporter.

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