Re-establishing global economic cooperation

The contagion fears of the European debt crisis have kept the euro close to a nine-month low against the US dollar, despite the fact that Europe's finance ministers met in Luxembourg on Oct 4, and agreed to shore up eurozone banks being shut out of the markets and relying on the European Central Bank (ECB) for liquidity.

For now, few people deny that the renewed anxiety in the United States and Europe is a big risk weighing on sentiments about recession and unemployment. On a higher level, the bigger risk is the time-consuming arguments and the disturbing lack of global policy coordination.

Unlike in 2008, when world leaders from advanced and developing nations alike swiftly launched stimulus packages of fiscal and monetary measures, in 2011 the landscape is very different. The spirit of cooperation has been replaced with a climate lacking urgency and coherence in policy coordination and joint action has been replaced with a lot of criticism and quarrels among countries.