There are already signs that serious protectionist pressure is building. The fact that there is no simple solution represents a dangerous state of affairs. The backlog of financial difficulties cannot easily be tackled by macroeconomic policies alone. But policy inertia can allow the situation to worsen considerably. Averting the risk of a global recession depends on actions by the US and especially by the surplus countries, the EU and Japan.
Bold action is needed to avert the risk of global recession.
From one point of view markets should know more about what governments are doing in order to avoid bad investment and lending. From another, governments need to know more about what the markets are doing in order to take action and prevent instability. According to a third view the International Monetary Fund should know more about what both markets and governments are doing in order to carry out effective surveillance. Yet, from another view, IMF has to be reformed towards more transparency and democracy in its decisions, consultations and programmes. Certainly the value of information is what you make of it and how you act on it.