Portents of worse times

AS the news of Japan joining the Eurozone in recession comes in, on the heels of the failure of the G20 summit to inspire the hope of stemming the rot in the global economy, the portents of worse times ahead seem only too real. No doubt, leaders of the world's 20 most powerful economies agreed, meeting at Washington late last week, to take certain reform measures to 'kickstart' growth and revitalise markets, they left it to individual states to devise their own responses to interest rates and public spending, taking away the impact that a coordinated move and a clear-cut approach would have made on the economic situation as a whole. The summit's decision to accord a greater role to emerging economies, however, reflected the stark reality that the US and the West no longer held the key to an economic turnaround.