While growth has accelerated in the United States, it remains weak in Japan and is slowing in China and in other emerging economies; in Russia it is contracting rapidly. The slump in oil prices may bolster economic activity in the advanced countries but it is also the result of weak demand; it must be prevented from entrenching expectations of deflation.
After all, the only thing that is interesting is uncertainty, and therefore, interesting times may be enjoyable for the bystander; but for those who are in the thick of it, those who are to take various decisions and whose livelihood depended on it, it surely is a challenge, to say the least. But the question that I am going to examine today is different.