MacroscopeAs leaders squabble, a world economy in dire danger is in need of a peacemaking hero

Unlike with the last global financial crisis, the world is split into ideological blocs, the economy battered by a pandemic, and the threats broad-based

Someone needs to be the adult in the room and convene a special summit to persuade world leaders to cooperate on an economic rescue

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A man walks past a wall of flags next to a placard reading: “All nations, we need your military equipment and personnel please” on Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 23, amid a war with Russia. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:30pm, 26 Jun 2022Updated: 6:40pm, 26 Jun 2022

Ideological gridlock is allowing the global economy to drift towards disaster while political leaders defend their corners for fear of proposing dialogue. The first with the courage to do so is likely to win respect while those who spurn it will be discredited.

But who is prepared to behave as an “adult in the room” among scrapping kids or countries? Realistically, such leadership must come from the United States, China, the European Union, Japan or Britain as they matter the most in economic and military heft.

A special summit is needed – not the usual jockeying for position or publicity-seeking kind with a final communique prepared in advance but a cut-to-the-question exchange on how to step back from an all-engulfing strategic and economic crisis.

History will judge who, if anyone, was prepared to rise to the occasion and take the first step towards resolving the deadlock of entrenched position-taking, self-righteous posturing and irresponsible sabre-rattling while there is (just about) still time.

When I suggested last week that the world has never been confronted with such economic insecurity, I was taken to task by one reader who argued that if the world survived the 2008 global financial crisis, it could survive the coming one. But this is simply not so.

The political and ideological context was completely different. The US and China were not at each other’s throats, Russia was not at war with Ukraine, inflation was tame, global supply chains were not broken and the world had not been sundered into rival blocks.