Sunday, 26 May 2013

Final Project


World Economy and Crisis

The world economy, which is also called the global economy, means all the economies of the world combined and how they inter-relate with each other.  It is very important nowadays that we should know about the economic situation all around the world because sometimes it directly or indirectly affects us.  International financial problems like inflation ( rising prices), credit crunch (no cash available for loans by banks) as well as foreign exchange rates ( rate of one country’s currency in terms of another currency) and foreign trade are the key points to be taken care of, for smooth running of any country’s economy. Due to this, there is a need to regulate international money and financial matters, which are looked after by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and such organizations.  These organizations ensure smooth running of financial dealings as well as trade issues between all countries of the world. The world economy is not only related to money but also human resources (the people), who work and earn money for themselves and pay taxes to their governments. It is necessary to provide good employment to people so they bring economic development to their country. Overall, when all countries develop, the whole world economy develops. Every year it is calculated how much the world economy has grown or slowed down.

Regular checking and monitoring of the economic situation helps a country to save itself from any crisis. The latest international crisis was in the year 2007–2008, which is considered to be one of the worst in world history. It started due to the banks’ huge amounts of money spent and invested in housing and shares in the USA. Finally, on one day, as people heard that some crisis was coming, they all rushed to banks and asked to take out their money. The banks did not have such a huge amount on the same day and many account holders could not get their money.  There was a shortage of cash everywhere and no bank was ready to give any loan. It created a big issue as people demanded their own deposited money back. It resulted in the total disaster of some large financial institutions, the closing of banks by national governments, and huge losses in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market also suffered, resulting in people leaving the houses, foreclosures (selling of houses due to non-payment of house loans) and high rates of unemployment. The crisis played an important role in the failure of many businesses, losses in people’s wealth in trillions of US dollars, and a downturn in economic activity leading to the 2008–2012 global recession (prices fell, industries closed due to losses, unemployment increased). Still it was not that serious as we can see from the picture below. Here are the figures of some important regions of the world and their economic growth rate ( GDP= Gross Domestic Product Total number of goods produced in a country)
Source:http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-global-financial-cr-by-Niloufar-Parsi-130513-645.html

From this picture, the World Bank's own figures can be seen, that the worst year 2009 of  "global economic crisis”, shows negative results in only 3 regions out of 7,  namely Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America.  In this way this was not a big global recession. In fact, East and South Asia grew by as much as 7.5% in the same year. Also the Middle East and North Africa were progressing with 1.8% growth rate. In other words, in the year 2009, half of the world's population was experiencing a major economic boom (progress). The rest of the population was facing economic crisis.  A report, by Yale Global gave information on why the crisis started, how it affected the industries and consumers around the world, especially in the USA and Europe and the solutions which have been proposed by experts. According to them, the crisis resulted in:  a) massive unemployment; b) the closing of state social welfare programs, and c) more people became poor. Moreover, a bigger problem was this worldwide economic crisis came together with a worldwide militarization (wars, army, defence  spending),  by some big powerful nations.  These nations are spending huge amounts of money on army, defence, attacks and international policing. This money could be used for human welfare projects , to reduce poverty and spread education and  healthcare. 

 

About the world crisis Mr. Barack Obama , President of the US said in a debate:

"I am optimistic about the capacity of us to come together with a plan." ( September 27, 2008)

Source: http://dalje.com/en-world/obama-mccain-quotes-on-financial-crisis-economy/186677

Even now in 2013, another global economic crisis looks like coming recently but the situation is not so bad. The global economy has faced risks but the things now look better. Financial market conditions continue to improve. But the recovery  and progress is not so smooth.  As per history, usually the economic recoveries after financial crises are slow.  All the countries have to work hard to balance their losses with more production and profits for long term growth.  For this, they need to plan reforms and work on them to boost product quality and job creation.  Financial organizations should be helped to recover from their losses and start giving loans to businessmen. The challenges that we must work on are steady economic growth and financial stability and these should be shared by many global partners. That is why greater cooperation and coordination of policies is essential.   For this cooperation, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund come for help especially to small and poor countries. They try to bring investment in industries and create employment opportunities for people, to make them independent and useful for their country. Overall, when all countries develop, the world economy also develops, which means, in general, we all live in a better society.


References:
1. http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-global-financial-cr-by-Niloufar-Parsi-130513-645.html

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008

3. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/global-economic-crisis

4.http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-global-economic-and-social-crisis-why-we-must-fight-the-new-world-order/5334020

5.http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Global-Economic-Crisis-and-by-Richard-Clark-130513-836.html

6.http://www.globalresearch.ca/europes-economic-crisis-unemployment-hits-record-highs-in-spain-france/5333053

7. http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/07-05-2013/124503-russia_economic_crisis-0/

8. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-13-353_en.htm?locale=en

 

 

 

 

 

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