# Gloomy economic outlook brightens beyond 2016

1 Opinion January 11, 2016 Financial News ![Roy C. Smith](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/uat_025572.jpg?itok=Kn4Ckx0s) By Roy C. Smith >

**In 2015 we had terrorism, refugees, a collapse in oil prices, trouble with Russia and China, world economic growth at a discouraging 3.2%, and a lot of other stuff that has taken the wind out of our sails.**

But after the New Year festivities subsided, I had a quiet drink with my old friend Rosie Scenario, who persuaded me that if you look a bit further out, the prospects are rather brighter.

True, Rosie said, the world’s developed economies are stuck in a prolonged 2% annual growth mode (which if it becomes the new normal would be very troublesome), and the great Bric engines of growth are sputtering - but things are settling down for a long-term recovery.

The Great Recession has been great because it lasted so long. And one reason it did is that politicians were more sympathetic to unemployment than the cold-hearted, free market economists were. Globally we can identify $15 trillion to $20 trillion of sympathetic government spending for bailouts, incremental welfare programmes, stimulus efforts, and market stabilisation – the largest such interventions in history by far.

Read full article as published in [Financial News](http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2016-01-11/roy-smith-gloomy-economic-outlook-brightens-after-2016?link=mktw).

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*Roy C. Smith is the Kenneth G. Langone Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance and a professor of Management Practice. Brad Hintz is an adjunct professor of Finance.* ## More Opinions from Roy C. Smith

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