An exclusive club of the rich and decreasingly powerful: that's how the so-called G-7 is usually perceived.

And with some justification. For it is a snapshot of the world we knew half a century ago, rather than the one we inhabit today. Not less than four out of its seven members are European: France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Only one Asian nation is a member, and it happens to be Japan, the one Asian country whose economy, although big, is shrinking. No voice for Africa. Canada and the United States are the only representatives for all the Americas.