I wonder if anyone wants to help explain what all this news about the American/European and world economy means to a regular Yemeni?
What if you have a business or a regular job in the west?
What if you have money invested in these collapsing economies?
What if you have dollars in one of these losing banks?

It is very interesting.




Beware the slithering snail

If the world economy's biggest problem turns out to be America remaining snail-like for longer than most people expect, many will breathe a sigh of relief. Given the scale of the financial mess, it could be a lot worse. You can even argue that after five years of breakneck growth, a more sedate global expansion would be no bad thing: it would dampen inflationary pressures in the emerging world, and weaker domestic demand should shrink America's gaping external deficit—already down from above 6% of GDP to below 5%.

But that is about as far as optimism can take you. The main fear is that the rest of the world proves less resilient than now seems likely: commodity exporters, say, may rely on American demand less than they did, but are hardly cut off from it. The weak dollar also causes problems. Importing America's loose monetary policy will become harder to sustain for countries, such as the Gulf states, that peg their currencies to the greenback. They will need to let their exchange rates rise.

Politics too can do plenty of damage. A sluggish America next year will be a hard inheritance for the next president. With the budget deficit rising, big domestic reforms, such as expanding health-care coverage, will become more difficult; with a fragile economy, the Democrats, if they get in, may have to rethink their plan to roll back George Bush's tax cuts.

And do not forget populism and protectionism. Already eight out of ten Americans say their country is on the wrong track. A protracted malaise will spawn an angry search for scapegoats. Even though free trade is helping save Americans from a worse downturn, Mr Bush is struggling to get a trade deal with Colombia through Congress (see article): heaven help the Doha round. Meanwhile, the momentum to re-regulate financial markets and punish the oil industry, credit-card firms or indeed any other malefactors of great wealth will grow. The great American slowdown may be less calamitous than many people fear; but it is fraught with dangers.


http://www.economist.com/opinion/displa ... d=11016333
Make sure you also explore the comments.

I thought that was it


so people were flipping houses and selling them to each other to inflate their prices and now they are stuck with the loan and can't sell them

The banks tke the house back but the already forked an overpriced check

Now average joe the plummer needs to pay the difference



so you think the donkey is going back to 15 dollars