The New Dark Age

Monday, 7 February 2022 — Michael Roberts Blog

At the beginning of January, I posted my economic forecast for the world economy in 2022.  I argued that, although the major capitalist economies were likely to expand during 2022, real GDP, investment and income growth was likely to be much slower than the fast rebound in 2021 from the global pandemic slump of 2020.  Last year had seen a leap back, as economies reopened after the first and second COVID waves of 2020.  In the major economies, especially the US, that rebound had been helped a significant injection of easy credit, zero interest rates and considerable fiscal spending.  This rebound was akin to the ‘sugar rush’ that we get if we ingest a large dollop of sweet things to get ourselves going.  There is a big boost, but it does not last.

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