With the Saddam Hussein regime effectively ousted, the world is a lot less jittery than when the U.S.-led war in Iraq began, but that doesn't mean clear skies for the global economy, according to Edwin A. Finn Jr., editor and president of Barron's magazine.
Stock markets around the world are now about 10 percent higher than immediately before the war started, but the rally hasn't been a robust one, and some markets -- including Tokyo's -- have been faltering in recent days, Finn said at a seminar Wednesday organized by the Keizai Koho Center at Keidanren Kaikan in Tokyo.
"This is because markets are always forward-looking, not backward-looking," Finn said. "The market is looking right now to what would happen tomorrow, and next week, and next month, and next year -- not what happened last week with the war."