The final session of the London Business School economic forum considered the recovery of the global economy. In her opening statement, Noriko Hama, research director at Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc., said, "We might just as well be talking about no recovery of the global economy.
"Once the going gets bad, the linkage becomes very bad as it is a case of everyone going down on each other's coat-tails," she said. "It is a very frightening prospect indeed.
"We are probably going to come out of the present dire straits as inventory cycles tend to correct themselves in 13 or 14 months," she said. "However, I don't think this cyclical aspect is the fundamental issue. I think the more relevant question is the recovery of the global economy."