The devil is definitely in the details when it come to the results of a two-day talkfest among some of the world's most powerful leaders that was long on good intentions but short on solutions.
Lurking within the fine print of the ''summit leaders' declaration'' issued by the Group of 20 on Friday was the sense that no one is committed really to doing anything about the "imbalances" that are the primary concern of the United States and others suffering from huge deficits at the hands of China and other nations with huge trade surpluses.
All the leaders, from US President Barack Obama to China's President Hu Jintao could agree on the simple statement that "uneven growth and widening imbalances are fueling the temptation to diverge from global solutions into uncoordinated action". And they all agreed that "uncoordinated policy actions will only lead to worse outcomes for all."
The problem, though, was how to get beyond that platitude and on to anything like the "action" that would seem appropriate in what some people, notably the South Korean host, would like to go down in history as the "Seoul Action Plan".
