Back to basic values

"They can no longer be Western values, Chinese values, Malaysian values, but shared common values."

China expert Andrew Godwin. associate director (Asian commercial law) at the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, shares Camilleri's assertion for an openness to incorporate possible alternative ideas.

In Godwin's analysis of China's paternalistic approach and the laissez-faire of the US, he suspects the balance lies somewhere in the middle.

"The US will have to be more open to the possibility of learning (from the experience of others)," says the Mandarin-speaking Godwin, who practised finance law in Shanghai from 1996 to 2006.

He observes that China has made a strong case for itself on these "big picture" issues. He expects these to come up at the G20, now the financial crisis has put the US and the West "on the back foot".

Such work towards global consensus is already happening, in Camilleri's view. On issues such as climate change, which Camilleri sees as a parallel of the financial crisis as matters of global concern.

Yet, as Obama cautions of the "change we need" in his victory speech last week, change "cannot happen if we go back to the way we were".

Murphy, in the context of medicine for the Wall Street blues, favours tough love.

"In the financial world, excessive leverage (borrowings) changed the nature of banking," he says. "The pain needs to work through the system (for long-term gain)."