"Bickering our way into a stagnant future"
“The world is at a crossroads,” writes Nobel laureate in economics Michael Spence, “with popular expectations diverging from reality.” He concludes that much of the Western world has been living far beyond its means for the last two decades. Nobel economists Edmund S Phelps and Vernon L Smith also offer their thoughts on the US economy. Although all three have differing views on what went wrong and how to fix it, one thing they agree on is that policymakers have failed to confront the debt crises facing the global economy. Ahead of another meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel tomorrow to discuss the eurozone, it remains to be seen whether politicians can do enough to calm the markets.