More than three years have passed since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, and the economic downturn feels like it may never end. Optimism had run high that 2011 would see a sustainable economic upswing. But those hopes were dashed by a nasty combination of the euro zone debt crisis, spiking food and oilwow gold prices, persistent unemployment in the U.S. and Europe and the terrible tsunami that devastated northern Japan. The past year proved far more turbulent, uncertain and painful than most economists had predicted.
So here we are, at the start of 2012, facing the same question: Will this year finally, really, truly bring an end to the economic crisis, and a strong, meaningful rebound to growth, job creation and financial stability? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, hey, I am a journalist after all, so what else would you expect? Though there are some reasons to be hopeful, I don’t think we’re out of the woods just yet. There is still too much uncertainty, too many problems left unresolved from the financial crisis, and too few tools in the hands of policymakers to act to support wow gold growth. Sure, there are some bits of good news. The U.S. economy has been creating more jobs; the improved optimism can be seen in a strong holiday shopping season. Emerging markets like China appear to have kicked their inflation problem, allowing them to ease money and pursue faster growth, which is good for the global economy overall. But let’s not kid ourselves. There is no avoiding the reality that the bad news clearly outweighs the good, just about everywhere. We’ve got the continued debt crisis in the euro zone, biting austerity in the developed world, unhealthy and unreformed banks, political paralysis – do I need wow gold to go on? In fact, we may be farther away from recovery now than we were a year ago, with conditions frighteningly like those in place ahead of the 2008 meltdown. Here’s IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard on this point:
We started 2011 in recovery mode, admittedly weak and unbalanced, but nevertheless there was hope. The issues appeared more tractable: how to deal with excessive housing debt in the United States, how towow gold deal with adjustment in countries at the periphery of the Euro area, how to handle volatile capital inflows to emerging economies, and how to improve financial sector regulation. It was a long agenda, but one that appeared within reach. Yet, as the year draws to a close, the recovery in many advanced economies is at a standstill, with some investors even exploring the implications of a potential breakup of the euro zone, and the real possibility that conditions may be worse than we saw in 2008…Is all hope lost? No, wow gold but putting the recovery back on track will be harder than it was a year ago.
