Subject: Re: Decision Memo on G20 Meeting Attendance
From: Daniel Tarullo <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 10:57:00 -0800 (PST)

John --
 
How do you want to handle this?  I've incorporated the handful of suggested edits I received but, with the foreign policy people (and to some extent Rubin) expressing uneasiness with the head-off-the-invitation option, we're not in a position to give a consensus recommendation on which variant of the don't-attend option to choose.  I've asked Jim and Susan what option they do prefer, but haven't heard anything back.
 
Dan

--- On Sun, 11/2/08, [email-masked] <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: [email-masked] <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Decision Memo on G20 Meeting Attendance
To: "Jason Furman" <[email-masked]>, "Daniel Tarullo" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], "Larry Summers" <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], [email-masked]
Cc: "Bill Daley" <[email-masked]>, "josh steiner" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sunday, November 2, 2008, 6:58 AM

Agree. Don't think this will be a hard sell with BO.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

From: "Jason Furman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 21:47:45 -0500
To: Daniel Tarullo<[email-masked]>; <[email-masked]>; Larry Summers<[email-masked]>; <[email-masked]>; <[email-masked]>
CC: <[email-masked]>; <[email-masked]>; josh steiner<[email-masked]>
Subject: RE: Decision Memo on G20 Meeting Attendance

Thanks for doing this. My suggestions are in redline in the attached. The only substantive issue is that I think we should make a recommendation among the four alternative options. My vote would be to head off the invitation to BO but if the administration wanted a staff representative to go ahead and send one. But I don’t have any strong feelings about that.
 
My other main change was stylistic, the pros and cons seemed to float out there without a clear statement about what they were pros and cons about. And then the next section of four options wasn’t fully linked.

From: Daniel Tarullo [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2008 7:35 PM
To: [email-masked]; Larry Summers; Jason Furman; [email-masked]; [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]; [email-masked]; josh steiner
Subject: Decision Memo on G20 Meeting Attendance

Attached is the draft of a memo to BO seeking a decision on his possible attendance at the G20 meeting on Nov. 15 (assuming that an invitiation from Pres Bush would be forthcoming to the President-elect).  As you will see, the option of trying to head off an invitation is developed at greatest length.  That mostly reflects the relatively straightfoward nature of the other three options, although also a bit the fact that some have already expressed a preference for this option.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you have comments on the body of the memo and/or a choice among the options.  Based on various conversations to date, the memo states that none of us on the economic side favors the option of accepting an invitation.

Susan and Jim -- note the line on p. 2 (right before the options section) to the effect that our foreign policy advisors concur that he should not attend the G20 meeting.  I'm presuming that's true, but want to draw your particular attention to it.