麻豆约拍

The economy is so bad that... well, it is so bad that the internet is abuzz with jokes that begin 'the economy is so bad that...'

Try this one for size: The economy is so bad that when I went to the bank to ask for a loan they said "what a coincidence, that's just what we were going to ask you".

All these jokes got us thinking, just how bad are the prospects for the global economy?

That's the subject of today's programme. To kick things off Justin Rowlatt interviews the American investor and financial commentator Jim Rogers who co-founded the Quantum fund with George Soros and now lives and works in Singapore.

Jim Rogers says this is just another cyclical downturn and the world economy has been here many times before. But surely that means governments - and the economists who advise them - can draw on the lessons from the past and help us avoid the worst.

Professor Kevin O'Rourke of Trinity College Dublin is an economic historian who has studied recessions, including the Great Depression of the thirties. Justin Rowlatt asks him whether, given how weighed down by debt most Western governments are, are they doing the right things?

Finally our regular commentator James Srodes gives this discussion a bit of perspective. According to him, and to use an old cliche, we shouldn't forget that every cloud has a silver lining.