Despite record-setting job creation, and the U.S. stock market's value tripling since 2009, the global economy ends the year on a sour note due to the currency crisis in Russia and plateauing growth in China.
"Europe has languished, and Japan has really swooned. Inflation fell everywhere thanks to oil prices going down," says KGOU's World Views contributor Joshua Landis.
Landis says there are dark clouds on the horizon, especially in East Asia and Europe.
"The housing market crisis [in China], it's still growing at 7 percent, though. It's pulling the world behind it," Landis says. "But Europe looks like it could go into a recession. And Japan is."
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