Lost Decade

Link here. After reading the story, the headline should have read: Another Lost Decade

It will be forever lost, who coined the phrase "lost decade," but I know I was among the first to use it.

I used the phrase in my first blog, which I deleted one evening in a fit of temporary insanity (wow, I lost some great posts).

The "lost decade" I was referring to was 2000 - 2010. I had periods of optimism in 2011 that "we" would be moving out of that "lost decade" into a decade of opportunity, but that, too, appears to be a mirage.

There will be a generation of Americans who will never work, at least not work in the area for which they had hoped. Another group of Americans, those aged 45+ and having been laid off from their life-long career, will also never work again.

For me, in the field that most interests me (energy), killing the Keystone XL may be the defining moment of 2012. I hope it is does not define the entire decade, but one wonders.

From the link above, in case the link breaks:

Five years after the credit crisis began, Western economies are confronting the prospect of a lost decade of growth, and international diplomats are warning the damage could get even worse if Europe allows its sovereign debt crisis to fester much longer.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde is heading to Berlin on Monday to urge action after the IMF called for member countries to provide the fund with $500 billion for new loans to help out troubled countries.

G20 officials also say Europe must double the size of its rescue fund to $1 trillion as a crucial step to stabilize financial markets and prevent the euro-zone crisis from spreading. Europe finance ministers meet on their debt plan on Tuesday.

The World Bank already sees the damage taking hold as European banks pull back their lending to emerging economies. Last week it slashed its growth forecast more than one percentage point to 2.5 percent for 2012, a pace not seen since 2008 when the world was last in a global recession.

Te Deum, Arvo PartFor Pat.