Our New Era of Uncertainty

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We’re in a new age of financial volatility that could last years, and it seems that nobody has the answers to get us out.

In TIME Magazine’s special Money issue out next week, Assistant Managing Editor Rana Foroohar describes this new volatile era, one in which the West seems to have run out of solutions to stop the continuing economic slide while European policymakers fiddle as Rome (and Athens and London) burns.

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The Federal Reserve has again tired to stop the economic hemorrhaging by buying up longer term Treasury bonds, hoping that will drive down mortgage rates and get homeowners out from being underwater on their loans. But Foroohar argues that consistent 2% GDP growth in the U.S. seems to be a foregone conclusion, and it looks increasingly like Japan’s last two stagnant decades. Our new era will most likely bring shortened cycles of boom and bust, with more frequent downturns, but more robust recoveries. That, at least, should provide a ray of hope for those leaders trying to mend the global economy.

To read more, pick up next week’s issue of TIME Magazine.