A Rose Among Thorns

[Valin]

Slate:

The U.S. economy has its problems, but it’s still better than everywhere else.

Nouriel Roubini

April 7, 2013

 

In the last four weeks, I have traveled to Sofia, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, London, Milan, Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, Istanbul, and throughout the United States. As a result, the myriad challenges facing the global economy were never far away.

 

In Europe, the tail risk of a eurozone break-up and a loss of market access by Spain and Italy were reduced by the European Central Bank’s decision to backstop sovereign debt. But the monetary union’s fundamental problems—low potential growth, ongoing recession, loss of competitiveness, and large stocks of private and public debt—have not been resolved.

 

(Snip)

 

In China, the leadership transition has occurred smoothly. But the country’s economic model remains, as former Premier Wen Jiabao famously put it, “unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable.”

 

(Snip)

 

hen there is the Middle East, which remains an arc of instability from the Maghreb to Pakistan. Turkey—with a young population, high potential growth, and a dynamic private sector—seeks to become a major regional power. But Turkey faces many challenges of its own. Its bid to join the European Union is currently stalled, while the eurozone recession dampens its growth. Its current-account deficit remains large, and monetary policy has been confusing, as the objective of boosting competitiveness and growth clashes with the need to control inflation and avoid excessive credit expansion.

 

 

(Snip)

 

 

____________________________________________________________________________

 

So in other words given the fact of globalization....we're still screwed.