Global economy in need of makeover

By Hugh Young, managing director of Aberdeen Asia The global economy is in need of a makeover as it suffers from a crisis of confidence in the US, a depressed Japan and shaky Latin America. If 2001 is best remembered for the unprecedented terrorist attacks in the US, then 2002 has already shaped up to be a year in which financial markets have parted company with recovering economic data. In the US, corporate accounting malfeasance, coupled with earnings shocks, has undermined Wall Street, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 diving to five-year lows. Declining jobs growth and falling industri...