GLOBAL CRISIS, RECOVERY AND THE CHANGING WORLD

The global economic crisis that lasted mostly during the years 2008 and 2009 has been the worst since the Great depression. Although statisti-cally the crisis seems to be over in most regions, the way to recovery rea-ching the pre-crisis levels will be long, painful and uncertain. It has to be pointed out that in some countries around the globe not even by the year 2010 the crisis was not over. On the overall the rebound had been weak and globally uneven. There seems to be under way a strong shift of economic activities towards Asian countries. This is more than evident in the case of China and India. In order to evaluate the process of global development well, an under-standing of this process prior to the crisis, the sources of the crisis, the effects of the crisis and the recovery path should be analyzed. In this paper the focus is on some of those issues.In the fi rst chapter of the paper the global situation prior to the crisis and the effects of the crisis since its outbreak are examined. The scope are the main regions of the world and signifi cant countries underlining the dif-ferences in development approaches, main factors of growth and the broad levels of global linkages facing them. The following chapter focuses on the aspects and implicit polarization outcomes. In a world in which inequalities of income distribution and poverty are as it seems on the rise and have been aggravated by the crisis, invite for the reexamination of the basic theories at hand. This is being presented it the third chapter. The theories and espe-cially the neo-liberal approach are being confronted by the facts offered by economic reality. The concluding remarks of the last chapter of the paper provide further questions on global federalism, the constraints and possibi-lities under the implicit assumption that they might develop without drastic confrontations and radical nationalistic outbursts.