The problem has already been partially solved: The worst recession since the Great Depression has caused American consumers to cut back sharply on spending. With the economy recovering, will Americans and Europeans load up on Chinese exports again?

Berkeley’s Eichengreen says that by using tax policy and revenue enhancement, the United States can limit the deficit and help encourage Americans to save more and spend less. But he says that for any system to succeed, it will have to be internationally agreed upon and focus on both high-savings nations like China and big spenders like the U.S.

Can Beijing stimulate domestic demand enough to take up the slack left by curtailed spending from the U.S.? It has already tried to do so with a $586 billion stimulus plan that focuses heavily on infrastructure spending, but it also includes subsidies for appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators.

Blustein believes the transition in China could be a lengthy process because Beijing doesn’t have a social security system in place and, consequently, Chinese consumers have to save a lot for retirement and health care. “It takes a heck of a lot of time to build the kind of safety net that they’re going to need to get their economy switched from a high-savings, high-export, low-import type of system,” he said. “It will require a very long time to phase it in and cost a lot of tax dollars.”

In addition, there is also the issue of getting China to allow the value of its currency to rise against the dollar, which would have the effect of slowing exports and raising imports. But China has so far resisted international pressure to float its currency.

This kind of rebalancing requires such a large measure of global cooperation that it may be impossible to achieve a solution in just a few days of meetings. For example, Obama can’t speak for Congress, which sets tax policy. Would the Congress pass tax bills that take China trade policy into account, and would Beijing do the same? In the current climate of tense trade relations, that does not seem very likely.