Is the world facing fundamental changes?

Recent event, including stock market falls, the escalating sovereign debt crises, US credit rating downgrade and a near-stalling of growth in the developed world is leading increasing numbers of experts to wonder if the world is facing some fundamental changes.

In reality, many of the ideas reflect trends that have been under way for many years, but the crisis had accelerated the process of change.

Four years after the financial crisis began and the world has certainly not returned to normal.

No major developed economy has yet fully regained the output lost during the recession and global share prices remain almost a third lower than their peak prior to the crisis.

Financial stocks have lost two-thirds of their value. Government debt has spiralled due to the bank bailouts, although it has become apparent that not all governments can finance this debt.

If stage one of the crisis involved the transfer of liabilities from the financial sector to governments via bank bailouts, stage two is witnessing transfers from weaker governments to stronger governments, as the latter seek to prevent the former from defaulting and causing more financial turmoil.

BBC News

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Dean Popplewell

Dean Popplewell

Vice-President of Market Analysis at MarketPulse
Dean Popplewell has nearly two decades of experience trading currencies and fixed income instruments.
He has a deep understanding of market fundamentals and the impact of global events on capital markets.
He is respected among professional traders for his skilled analysis and career history as global head
of trading for firms such as Scotia Capital and BMO Nesbitt Burns. Since joining OANDA in 2006, Dean
has played an instrumental role in driving awareness of the forex market as an emerging asset class
for retail investors, as well as providing expert counsel to a number of internal teams on how to best
serve clients and industry stakeholders.
Dean Popplewell