Looking back at 2008 and 2009, there was significant leadership on the part of the central banks and governments who did a great deal of work that resulted in coordinated efforts to inject record amounts of liquidity and other stimulus initiatives, avoiding a more dangerous crisis. Indeed, China truly was a leader, as it was the first country to enact a substantive package of wide-ranging stimulus measures.

Subsequent major policy actions implemented by the central banks, governments, as well as actions of the private sector, including the banking system's all-out efforts to recapitalize, has resulted in signs that the worst may be over. There are still challenges ahead however and some new global dynamics means that we can't fall back on old behavior patterns.

For example, there is a new reality for the US consumer who has, until recent times, accounted for approximately 70 percent of the country's GDP as well as provided momentum for global trade flows. The global economy can't look to the US consumer to carry the world on its back, as it had for nearly two decades.