In an assessment of the world economy, the Economist paints a downbeat picture.
World stockmarkets are in bear territory; gold (which improves when all else is looking bleak) has had its best start to a year in more than three decades; the cost of insurance against bank default has surged; talk of recession in America is rising; central bank stimulation of demand is failing to work and current politicians are not up to the job …
Economic hardship puts pressure on “ruinous schemes” to come to the fore; protectionist tariffs, windfall taxes, nationalisation et al. The time has come for politicians in rich economies to join the fight alongside central bankers and agree some more radical policy ideas, which fuse fiscal and monetary policy:
