In spite of leaving the G20 summit with less than he wanted, Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory parade is in full flow. The French president reckons he vanquished Anglo-Saxon capitalism, and he’s doing just about anything to make sure everyone knows it. Not even disparaging Barack Obama appears to be out of bounds.

People close to Sarkozy, I’m told, have been making it known that Obama wasn’t fully across his brief. He didn’t grasp the detail, they claim. Why? It all fits the narrative of Sarkozy coming to London knowing all the arcane regulatory details, standing his ground and outwitting the capitalists and tax-dodgers. Read more

Is the G20 “family photo” cursed? Today Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, missed the first attempt at a “picture of unity”. The word in the conference hall is that he was “spending a penny” while his counterparts were fixing their smiles. The attempt to re-shoot the picture went just as badly, after Silvio Berlusconi of Italy decided he had better things to do.

This is all very reminiscent of the last G20 meeting in Washington. The photographer there was thwarted at the first attempt by Argentina and the second by — you guessed it — Berlusconi and Indonesia’s Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. This disparate family seems incapable of coming together. Read more

There is some magic afoot at the summit. The leaders of the world’s biggest economies are about to agree a grand plan to print money. People with knowledge of the negotiations expect there to be a $250bn deal on the special drawing rights, which is the IMF’s own currency. This will effectively mean that all the IMF countries will have bigger reserves — as if by magic. It is quantitive easing on a global scale. The Germans were clearly a bit queasy about this, but it looks like they have given way. Read more

This is my first dispatch from the G20 media hangar, which has so far proved to be full of journalists and free of information. But Britain’s intrepid press pack have succeeded in digging up one important story: the “minty green” colour of the “lounge area”. We’re told that the world’s leaders will be plotting the course for economic recovery from a modern, functional, informal “break out zone”. There are comfortable chairs and tables, but “no bean bags”, according to one well informed source. Leaders left breakfast a short while ago (the menu remains top secret) and are now “milling around”, chewing the fat and bargaining over the world’s future. Here’s to hoping the coffee is better than it is in the press area. Read more