THERE YET? ARE WE BY LESLEY PARKER
It's five years on and the clock is still ticking on the global financial crisis. America has only a tenuous grip on modest growth, while Europe is still centre stage. What might happen next?
It started with easy credit and a housing bubble in the US and it hasn't ended yet. In stage one of the global financial
crisis, governments worldwide had to bail out banks and insurance companies that bought and sold complex financial products with 'toxic' sub-prime mortgages at their heart. In stage two, governments themselves are in need of rescue as a sovereign debt crisis exposes flaws in Europe's monetary union. Australia escaped the worst of the GFC but can't entirely avoid
its ripples. "People are battered and bruised because their super is lower
because of the share market, their house prices are down, and all they read in the newspaper are job losses at Qantas, Holden and Telstra, and so they're concerned about their own jobs," St.George Bank Chief Economist Hans Kunnen says. "That, plus what's coming out of Europe, has engendered a whole new era of conservatism. And all that has implications for business." So what's likely to happen next? Setting aside the daily 'noise'
in politics and the markets, what's the big picture? Let's look at the possible flashpoints as we follow the hands around the crisis clock.
