Opinion
The striking rise in the stock market over the past days, the rise of the US dollar, and the drop in oil prices are all shaping a new economic context… This unexpected development is, of course, based less on economic, and more on political factors… Political developments in Afghanistan, coupled with the new alliances – even if these turn out to be only ephemeral ones – which have been hammered out by Washington with Russia and other peripheral powers, and the calculation that the possibility of a new terrorist strike is becoming increasingly remote, have all reinforced the belief that the political context that will frame the actions of Western societies in the years to come is improving. Without a doubt, if this belief is consolidated in the West, it will have a vindicatory effect as similar beliefs did at the end of every global crisis in the previous century – whether following the two world wars or, more recently, the Gulf War. And it is no coincidence that each of these crises were succeeded by a period of economic growth. Thus it is possible the devastating disaster of September 11 and its aftermath will have the same beneficial effect, with the result that the Western economy will avoid the great recession and resume its upward trend. Apart from the ill effects on mental health, there are also clear repercussions on physical health.
