Throughout history, big economic and political shocks have often occurred in August, when leaders had gone on vacation in the belief that world affairs were quiet. Examples of geopolitical jolts that came in August include the outbreak of World War I, the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 and the Berlin Wall in 1961. Subsequent examples of economic and other surprises in August have included the Nixon shock of 1971 (when the American president enacted wage-price controls, took the dollar off gold, and imposed trade controls), 1982 eruption in Mexico of the international debt crisis, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the 1991 Soviet coup, 1992 crisis in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and US subprime mortgage crisis of 2007. Many of these shocks constituted events that had previously not even appeared on most radar screens. They were considered unthinkable.
Tag Archives: crisis
Recap: Obama Recovery, Emerging Markets & 2012 Crash
A recent video interview from Project Syndicate recaps some of my recent op-eds. It covers the following territory:
- 1975-81: 7 fat years (“recycling petrodollars”)
- 1982: crash (the international debt crisis)
- 1983-1989: 7 lean years (the “Lost Decade” in Latin America)
- 1990-1996: 7 fat years (Emerging Market boom)
- 1997: crash (the East Asia crisis)
- 1997-2003: 7 lean years (currency crises spread globally)
- 2003-2011: 7 fat years (the triumph of the BRICs)
- 2012: ?
Will Emerging Markets Fall in 2012?
Emerging markets have performed amazingly well over the last seven years. They have outperformed the advanced industrialized countries in terms of economic growth, debt-to-GDP ratios, and countercyclical fiscal policy. Many now receive better assessments by rating agencies and financial markets than some of the advanced economies.
As 2012 begins, however, emerging markets may be due for a correction, triggered by a new wave of “risk off” behavior among investors. Will China experience a hard landing? Will a decline in commodity prices hit Latin America? Will the sovereign-debt woes of the European periphery spread to neighbors such as Turkey in a new “Aegean crisis”?