Oh bliss, oh rapture

Ever wonder why economics is called the "dismal science"?  This little gem from the IMF should explain everything.  In a world where millions have no idea how they are going to survive the next three months, they issue a prediction that due to the damage caused by the financial geniuses, we can expect the current economic disaster to continue for six MORE years.  Those unemployed 26 year-old recent college grads who have $100,000 in student loans are probably overjoyed to read this.

Please remember, this catastrophe was absolutely NOT caused by a force of nature.  Humans caused these problems and humanity has vast experience coping with them.  This human misery is the result of CHOICES made by some phenomenally stupid or evil people.  The resulting pain is totally unnecessary!

No recovery until 2018, IMF warns

Fund's chief economist Olivier Blanchard says global economy will take a decade to recover from the financial crisis

Phillip Inman, economics correspondent The Guardian, 3 October 2012

The International Monetary Fund's chief economist has warned that theglobal economy will take a decade to recover from the financial crisis as the latest snapshot of the UK economy suggested that growth in the third quarter will be at best anaemic.

Olivier Blanchard said he feared the eurozone crisis, debt problems in Japan and the US, and a slowdown in China meant that the world economy would not be in good shape until at least 2018. "It's not yet a lost decade," he said. "But it will surely take at least a decade from the beginning of the crisis for the world economy to get back to decent shape.

Blanchard made his comments on a Hungarian website Portfolio.hu ahead of the IMF meeting next week in Tokyo. Germany is expected to defend its handling of Europe's debt problems at the meeting, but Blanchard said there was more that Europe's largest economy could do to support Spain and other struggling eurozone nations. In particular, he urged Berlin to accept a rise in inflation and wages that would make it less competitive with its trading partners.

He said there was no risk of hyperinflation in Europe. Higher inflation in Germany, though, would be beneficial: a somewhat higher inflation rate in Germany should simply be seen as a necessary and desirable relative price adjustment, he said. more