The global financial crisis, brewing for a while, really started to show its effects in the middle of 2007 and into 2008. A collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage market and the reversal of the housing boom in other industrialized economies have had a ripple effect around the world. Furthermore, other weaknesses in the global financial system have surfaced. Some financial products and instruments have become so complex and twisted, that as things start to unravel, trust in the whole system started to fail. Around the world stock markets have fallen, large financial institutions have collapsed or been bought out, and governments in even the wealthiest nations have had to come up with rescue packages to bail out their financial systems.
The extent of the problems has been so severe that some of the world’s largest financial institutions have collapsed? Others have been bought out by their competition at low prices and in other cases, the governments of the wealthiest nations in the world have resorted to extensive bail-out and rescue packages for the remaining large banks and financial institutions? The total amounts that governments have spent on bailouts have skyrocketed. From a world credit loss of $2.8 trillion in October 2009, US taxpayers alone will spend some $9.7 trillion in bailout packages and plans, according to Bloomberg. $14.5 trillion, or 33%, of the value of the world’s companies has been wiped out by this crisis. The UK and other European countries have also spent some $2 trillion on rescues and bailout packages. More is expected.
[1]
A huge discussion is still continuing on whether recovery packages has started a positive impact on the world economy and the downturn is de-accelerating or the global crisis is still continuing and getting more severe? John Lipsky, First Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF), is one of the people who is supporting the first view. Even though Lipsky is cautious to say that green shoots of recovery is visible at the current time, however, he has reasons to be optimistic
[2]. Developed economies are expected to recover and have positive growth rates for the first time after the crisis started (even an acceleration in the growth rates is expected in the second term of the year) after regulating the financial markets and stimulus packages. On the other side, Islamic Development Bank (IDB), even though they try to be optimistic, the decrease in the growth rates of IDB Member Countries causes pessimism[3].
Besides the efforts of the countries separately, IMF and other Major Development Banks (MDB) also has been contributing the efforts of recovery by expanding their financial services to the countries in need of liquidity. Especially developing and less-developed countries has been hit very roughly due to the halt in capital flows and although they take the necessary actions against the crisis, inadequacy of funds and other undesirable international effects of the crisis might cause large losses in these economies; and any financial help from the MDBs would help them get rid of negative effects of the crisis. A further meaningful step for the recovery for the whole world can be a cooperation between MDBs such as IMF, World Bank and IDB.
Inspite of all the recovery efforts by the governments and International Institutions, restructuring the trust in the global economy looks like the only way to recover from the crisis completely and providing this requires an optimistic view is to be spread to all over the world.

[1] Anup Shah, Global Financial Crisi, http://www.globalissues.org/article/768/global-financial-crisis, 17.06.2009.
[2] John Lipsky, IMF Survey Magazine, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2009/int060409a.htm, 17.06.2009.
[3] IDB, News, http://www.isdb.org/irj/portal/anonymous/idb_news_en, 17.06.2009.