Given the recent turmoil in the financial markets and so many problems worldwide, this week we asked the expert panel whether there was a connection between today's problems and the recent financial crisis.
Can you draw a line between today's sovereign debt crisis and US economic malaise to the 2008-09 credit crisis? Are these events connected and, if so, what is at the root of these crises?
Craig Wright (chief economist, RBC) says the 'global economic and financial system continues to be buffeted by the ongoing fallout from the decade of excess that came to an abrupt end in 2008'.
The decade of excess has given way to the decade of stress as the financial crisis led to an economic crisis that contributed to the fiscal crisis now commanding attention around the globe, Wright says.
'Unless policymakers and politicians act aggressively to shore up confidence, the risk is that the current fiscal crisis feeds back into another financial crisis, with this negative feedback loop leading to a vicious cycle of pain,' he adds.
A difference this time around relative to the earlier crisis is that the authorities know that this vicious cycle ends in pain, so they will do everything they can to prevent the negative feedback loop from taking hold, Wright says.
Monetary authorities are showing hopeful signs in the more challenged economies by holding interest rates lower for longer and keeping the system flush with liquidity. But the fiscally challenged countries have yet to convince markets and rating agencies that they have a credible, long-term consolidation plan, he says.