One year after the descent into chaos prompted by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the state of the world economy still resembles the aftermath of a nuclear blast, with even those countries far from the explosion’s epicentre showered with fallout. Although a 1930s-style slump seems to have been averted, the damage is still quite bad enough.
The economic contraction in some advanced countries has come close to the worst ever. Unemployment is rocketing, the banking system remains profoundly impaired, the public finances have been ruined, and what little sign of recovery there is looks alarmingly fragile.
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