[bromgeksan]

Thomas MuchaJune 1, 2012 09:47 | Global Post

Analysis: Don't look now, but there's trouble everywhere, planet earth.

Well, folks, if you haven't been closely following events recently then I've got some bad news for you: It sure looks
like we're headed for more dark times. And fast.

From the world's largest economy (the US), to the world's largest economic bloc (the European Union), to the world's
fastest-growing major economy (China) to a former high-flyer (India), the world is a mess right now.

So let's steel ourselves, and take a closer look at the damage:



The biggest economic report in the world's biggest economy landed with a thud Friday.

The US added only 69,000 jobs in May — the third straight month of anemic job growth. The US unemployment rate,
meanwhile, ticked up to 8.2 percent, from 8.1 percent in April.

The jobs number is so important, of course, because people don't spend money if they don't have money. And consumer
spending makes up about two-thirds of the giant US economy. So no jobs, no money, no spending, no growth.

And that, in turn, puts pressure on company executives, who cut costs by — you guessed it — eliminating jobs or by not
hiring more people.

So down and down we go, cycling ever deeper into a loop of doom.



Europe — the world's largest economic bloc with a combined annual gross domestic product of some $17 trillion — is in the
midst of a serious economic decline triggered by the ongoing, and worsening, euro crisis.

That is, of course, tragic for the jobless masses in Spain, where the unemployment rate currently tops 20 percent. It is also
very bad news for struggling people in Italy, Greece, Ireland, France and elsewhere across Europe. And it complicates the
gargantuan political problems now facing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, new French President Francois Holland, and the
rest of the EU's beleaguered leaders.

But Europe's woes don't stop at its borders.

US companies need that giant market, too. So do China's many exporters. Countries across eastern and central Europe are
economically tied to the EU. And, of course, there are the banking problems associated with Europe's troubles, as the bottom
lines of financial institutions worldwide are intimately connected with what eventually plays out there.



As GlobalPost's senior correspondent in Hong Kong Ben Carlson reported this week, China is sputtering on almost every count:

"The first five months of 2012 have seen a parade of uncharacteristically iffy economic data out of China. First quarter GDP growth
was 8.1 percent, a three-year low. Electricity output slipped. Bank lending slowed. Retail luxury sales dropped. The manufacturing
index hit its seventh straight month of contraction in May. And that’s not even counting the doldrums from Europe that are likely
contributing to China's economic troubles."

Beijing is now mulling a $315 billion stimulus package to stave off the slowdown, but "capitalism with Chinese characteristics" is
clearly showing strains.

So, too, is the other economic wunderkind of the past decade.

India is also in big trouble — from a shocking drop in GDP, to a rapidly sinking rupee, to rising political unrest.

And let's not forget economic powerhouse Japan, which is growing but still struggling with the economic damage caused by last
year's devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

Then, of course, there are the serious strategic problems now facing the world, each of which has the potential to trigger even
more economic damage, such as the escalating conflict in Syria, political confusion and uncertainty in Egypt, simmering anger and
frustration in the Palestinian Territories and Israel, to say nothing of the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, potential war with
Iran and the ever-dangerous situation in a rapidly-deteriorating North Korea.

So where's the good news?