The quicksand of global economics.

• Author: Hollein, Marie N.
• Position: FROM THE PRESIDENT - Viewpoint essay

The recent G-20 meeting in Cannes, France, was originally designed to give the leaders of the world's great economies the opportunity to sink their teeth into the many challenging issues ahead of the world, as well as their respective nations. Among these: how to strengthen the International Monetary Fund and how to stabilize competing currencies and other critical issues.

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Instead, it quickly reverted to another round of damage control, dealing with the sovereign debt crisis in Italy, so soon after the European Union had to come to the rescue of Greece.

Helping to stabilize the Greek economy is one thing, even though that's clearly no small undertaking But struggling to keep Italy--the world's eighth-largest economy--afloat is another matter entirely.

And, with ill economic winds buffeting other major European economies, such as Spain, the G-20 meeting shone a spotlight on how many moving parts remain to be locked down before the group can look ahead with any real degree of global financial optimism and collectively build an effective plan for the future.

US and Europe Intertwined

We're going through a bit of role reversal at the moment. The debilitating movements of the United States economy, and government responses to them, from 2007 through the early part of this year, have set the tone for the machinations of the global economy. Europe and the other important international economies reacted to what we did in the U.S. In recent months, that hasn't always been the case.

It seems the unpredictable gyrations of many foreign economies--not just those in the European Union--are now dictating the global economic condition. Look no further than the sharp dips and dives experienced a few months back as the U.S. markets lurched wildly day to day, depending almost solely on what was transpiring across the Atlantic.

Anticipating the Future

It's not clear exactly what all of this...