Op-Ed: A call for urgent global intervention

Fear is loose. Plunging stock markets and exploding risk indicators during yesterday's trading session underscored that we are entering a second round of worldwide recession. Neither Europe nor the United States has taken a firm step toward recovery, and at no time have the specters of another recession been scared away.

The wild cannon of debt is disrupting markets every day. For the markets, the notion of normal has been abandoned. Yesterday the Ibex 35 dropped to its 2009 lows. The ebbing tide of our risk premium flirted with the 400 basis point level all day. We are starting to get used to living at the edge of the abyss. An epidemic of alarms was sounded in the world's stock markets.

Yesterday two messages pounded indexes on the Old Continent. On the one hand, the European Commission president, Barroso, warned that our debt crisis has moved beyond the peripheral countries and now belongs to all countries using the euro. Even the strongest. On the other hand, there were hopes that Trichet would announce an aid program that involves buying Spanish and Italian debt, the two most turbulent nations in this crisis from the perspective of the markets. But after mentioning that he might buy debt, he did not leave it clear whether he will buy it from Spain or Italy. Crash. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic are no less worrisome.

Raising the United States debt ceiling avoided payment defaults, but nobody can guarantee that their credit rating will remain at AAA. Likewise, there are no concrete plans to address serious fiscal unbalance in the world's premier economy. Amen that the United States is not putting out encouraging economic data as of late.

The GDP from the second quarter disappointed by dropping 1.3%, and today there were fears about bad unemployment figures. From one side of the ocean to the other, it is seen that the global economic crisis has intensified.

The deadly virus has mutated, vindicating those who said that we still hadn't seen its real power. The global economy is adjusting itself because it has written a mortgage that it cannot pay off. We will soon see the full extent.