Is the world economy on its way out of the crisis? Has the world been learning the right lessons? The answer to both questions is: up to a point. We have done some of the right things and learnt some of the right lessons. But we have neither done enough nor learnt enough. Recovery will be slow and painful, with substantial danger of relapses.
Start, however, with the good news. The financial crisis, narrowly defined, is over: stock markets have rallied; liquidity is returning to markets; banks have been able to raise equity; and the extreme risk spreads in financial markets of last year have disappeared. When addressed powerfully, panics end. In this case, the commitment of the authorities to the rescue of a failing financial system was unprecedented. It has had the desired results.
The worst of the economic crisis is also passing. As the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development noted in its latest Economic Outlook, “for the first time since June 2007, the projections ... have been revised up for the OECD area as a whole compared with the previous issue”. Similarly, the International Monetary Fund states in its latest World Economic Outlook update that “economic growth during 2009-10 is now projected to be about half a percentage point higher than forecast by the IMF in April, reaching 2.5 per cent in 2010”.