The New Year began with pundits telling the same old story: the global economy is in crisis. Growth forecasts are being revised downwards for both developed and developing nations. The chieftains of world capital are now choosing to warn the rest of the world of an impending global economic catastrophe if solutions are not found quickly.Europe and America's financial and economic woes are long and deep - and of their own making. The resulting spasms reflect the accelerating decline of the traditional global financial network, as the galloping changes in global power centers of world finance find themselves unable to keep up with the economic realities. The Euro area is deep in the economic danger zone. Its public debt rose to 88.4 percent of GDP in 2011. Its economy is forecasted to contract 0.5 percent in 2012 before returning to meager growth of 0.8 percent in 2013. Indeed, the very future of the Euro - its crown jewel - is threatened as member-states face financial meltdowns created by fiscal and monetary overheating. Powerful lenders Germany and France are forced to rethink as the defaults expand. Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece have all moved from boom to bust, as the EU faces its worst recession in living memory. Greece badly needs to pay 14.5 million Euros in debt redemption and get private creditors to write off over another 100 million Euros - all by March 20, 2012 - to be able to get a 130 billion Euro bailout needed to avoid going bust and setting off another global financial meltdown. Source: China.org.cn
