I have already said elsewhere that this would be a rational move on the part of the public sector, because it would remedy a potential “market failure” at a cost that will be both modest and deferred in time.
On these forecasts, global GDP will grow by about 3¼ per cent in 2012. That is down from about 3¾ per cent in 2011, which was about the average rate of growth over the past 15 years. On its face, this performance, should it occur, would be no disaster. After all, growth is going to be below average some of the time.