Davos experts tell us what we know

The World Economic Forum is taking place in Davos this week.

These economic experts are predicting a general world economic recovery in 2011, but it will be a “three-speed recovery”.

“Emerging markets” like China, India and Brazil (how long do these markets take to emerge, for goodness sake? Haven’t China and India been on the list for over five years?) will grow fast.

Germany and the US will grow strongly, and the rest of us (advanced economies, at least) will make only slow progress.

I hope they’re not paying these experts for this amazing insight.

Nouriel Roubini, an economist who predicted the credit crunch and known as a pessimist, spoke of a situation where "we have a glass that is half-empty and half-full". He could see the “first signs of acceleration”, but warned of “potential negatives”, citing the latest slowdown in the UK as a sign that the crisis was not yet over.