Leadership

The World Bank predicts that the global economy will enter recession this year for the first time since the Second World War. The Washington-based bank added that global trade was heading for its steepest decline in 80 years, and that the impact of the downturn would hit developing countries hardest, particularly in Asia. It said poor countries faced a financing shortfall of up to 700 billion dollars because private sector creditors have fled emerging markets due to the financial crisis. The bank’s projections are significantly more pessimistic than those of its sister organisation, the International Monetary Fund, which predicted last month that the world’s economy would continue to expand this year by half a percent.

At least we can count on the years of goodwill that the U.S. has bought to further our international interests rather than relying on the benefits of capitalism and military force. I’m sure that this will in no way affect attitudes toward more open trade and that any adverse effects on trade will be the sole responsibility of Obama.