Challenges Ahead

Abstract

The world is in the throes of myriad problems of unprecedented magnitude. The United States in particular is confronted with critical problems, many of which are the legacy of the Bush administration and require immediate remedy. While each problem needs to be analyzed in detail and its remedial measures found, it may be appropriate to list some of them here. The number one problem is the economic meltdown set in motion by the U.S. subprime crisis. While this is of immediate domestic concern, affecting millions of Americans who have been laid off from their jobs and therefore lost their earnings, savings and their homes, it also has had devastating consequences across the entire world, some calling it an economic tsunami. In the immediate aftermath of the meltdown, leaders of the G20 met in Washington on November 15, 2008 to find a way out of the crisis. They agreed upon instituting measures to strengthen and reform the world financial system. Some even called it “Bretton Woods 2,” after the original Bretton Woods system for international monetary management, to ensure compatibility with the modern and increasingly globalized system.¹