Armageddon averted

Panic over. Six months ago, you could not pick up a newspaper or watch the TV without sensing that the global economy was imploding. Banks were being bailed out, the stock market was in freefall, ­factories were being mothballed. Shaken to its very foundations, capitalism would never be the same again.

But that was then. Capitalism, it appears, has made a deathbed recovery. It is out of intensive care and, while not quite fighting fit, is doing well in the recovery ward. Another few months should see it as good as new.

Don't be fooled into thinking this is something flammed up by a media suffering waves of ennui after two years charting the path from boom to boost. While Depression chic is now last year's thing, there are reasons to believe the worst of the crisis may be over, certainly for now. Estate agents say buyer interest is running at its highest level in a decade; retail activity last month was the strongest for three years; the decline in factory output in March was just 0.1% – the least bad performance since early 2008.

Internationally, there are the first signs of a recovery in world trade after last autumn's collapse. The lead indicator of the global economy produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – a guide to future activity – recorded a sharp bounce in April, suggesting a V-shaped recession is no longer out of the question. Financial markets certainly believe so. Share prices are up 25% in the UK since early March; the oil price was back above $60 a barrel yesterday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/12/economic-recovery-recession

nothing has changed, and just because people want to wish it away, doesn't mean it's going to go away.

as they try to entice your cash into the market, to overpay for the equities they bought cheap in the last crash.

to private parties.

... this economy is still in free fall and the schill who wrote this knows it.

But for all of those who want desperately to believe, go ahead. No skin off my chin.