2012 GLOBAL OUTLOOK

• Four years after the start of the global financial crisis, the world economy remains fragile and unemployment is unacceptably high.  This year, even more dire news.
     
• For starters, the eurozone crisis is worsening. Farther to the west, US economic performance is weakening below potential.  Dark clouds are rolling in from every direction.
    
• Moreover, political gridlock over fiscal adjustment is likely to persist, regardless of whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney wins November’s presidential election.
    
• Long-simmering tensions in the Middle East are already exacerbating the economic slowdown.
    
• Unsustainable budget deficits and public debt in most advanced economies have severely limited the scope for further fiscal stimulus.
    
• It would seem that we are headed for that global perfect storm.
     
• Cyclical nature of crisis?  Can we afford a "cyclical" war then?
  Can we afford to do nothing but wait?
    
• The politics in both the US and Europe over the next decade is going to be about who eats the present losses.  Guess who?
    
• These times will be remembered as the time when many ever-optimistic Americans began to give up hope.
       
• Youth-led protest movements like Occupy Wall Streeters, have made clear that something is very wrong with the capitalist system.
      
• When it comes to political or economy forecasts, our crystal balls are very cloudy.
    
• Distressed countries?  Distressed people?  Countries and people on a death spiral?
  Will the recovery be too late for some of them/us?
      
• Seems that we have to choose between leaders who have proven wrong and future elected ones who have not yet proven their inability – but who could make matters even worse.
    
• America likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity and proudly exports this imagine to the other countries.  These days the American dream is to win at lottery with much higher chances of winning.
   

 ... and we could add some more worrisome points to the picture like the oil crisis, overpopulation, global ecological crisis, poverty and inequality, religious fundamentalism, excessive war budgets and organized crime which have added more fuel to the fire.  Yes, seems that we are headed for that "global perfect storm" or better:  "end of the world" because "pre-war times" or "capitalism reform" sound too preposterous or radical for us.

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             ( Thanks to Project-Syndicate for their permission to reuse some ideas and quotes from their website )