For two years now, we have collectively gorged on tales of tears and deeds of downfall. If the bulls really are back and the economic and financial misery is about to end, here are 16 reasons why we will miss the gloomy times.

1. Role-play will be a lot less pleasurable. We have split the world into two pantomimic parts: the evil (the bankers) and the good (everyone else). In future, sorting out villains and victims will require more imagination.

2. The crisis has favoured inexpensive, socially constructive pastimes such as bird-watching, book-reading and communal needlework. More aggressiveactivities will soon be on the rise again.

3. The prophets of doom have had a field day. Yet we feel strangely comfortable with the Cassandras. We have enjoyed being told that the light at the end of the tunnel signals an approaching train. Now we will have to get re-acquainted with the optimists – a much more dangerous and unsettling bunch of people.

4. During the recession we profited from empty planes, hotels, restaurants and buses. When recovery comes we will have excess demand again. The good life, when it returns, will be a lot more crowded.

5. Prices have been falling. Is that not what everyone always wanted? Now everything – from apples to yachts – will be going up again. And won’t we now all start suffering from the Great Inflation? What would you rather have: Austerity Britain or Weimar Germany?

6. The central banks have become the people’s friends, with even the European Central Bank cutting interest rates. Not long from now, rates will be rising again. Goodbye to bargain-basement banks, dirt-cheap consumer credit and rock-bottom mortgages.

7. Many high street stores selling goods that no one wanted to buy have closed, prompting art galleries and other edifying enterprises to move in to the vacant sites. Alas, all these shops peddling tawdry knick-knacks will be back with us again.

8. People have started to eat less. Obesity has been on the decline. There has been a boom in home-grown vegetables. Once the economy starts to grow again, the nation’s health will plummet.

9. Dinner party talk of house price rises will return. People will no longer be ashamed of being estate agents. Sons and daughters will again want to go into investment banking rather than eco-farming.

10. We will have to get used to a new, painful jargon. “Quantitative easing” was bad enough. The vocabulary of recovery is still less elegant. Prepare for the central banks selling their enormous holdings of government bonds to drive up interest rates. Practise saying “quantitative firming”.

11. Service blossoms in a downturn. Waiters wait, usherettes usher, doormen open doors. GDP growth = general grumpiness.

12. It is good to have scapegoats. We have been delighted to blame the mess on George W. Bush, the former US president, and Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister. Now President Barack Obama will take all the credit for the upswing. He may become slightly smug. The upshot: anti-Americanism will surge.

13. Energy use will rise again. With a good strong depression under way, we thought we had global warming licked. Not so! We will have to endure a new and mighty role for Opec and the sprouting up everywhere of new nuclear power stations.

14. Reining in the Russians will be more difficult when the oil price starts to push through $100 a barrel. So it will be scowls, not smiles, from President Dmitry Medvedev. And let’s not even think of how the Iranians will start to behave.

15. The bane of the 21st century – current account imbalances – has been coming nicely under control. Now all this will be out of control again. The dollar will plummet. Worse news, the foreign exchange dealers will run out of other currencies to sell it against.

16. China will really start to throw its weight around when its export motor goes back into overdrive. Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union. Forget the SDR. The central bankers’ new official currency: the renminbi.

Once everything gets back to normal, we will soon begin to discern the green shoots of a new crisis. And it will be a lot worse than the 2007-09 version. Happy times!

這一年多以來，我們經歷了太多血淚，目睹了太多的失敗。但是當有一天形勢回暖，所有的經濟金融慘劇都落下帷幕時，我們也許會想念這段沉抑的時光，因為以下這16點理由。

1.角色扮演將不會那么有意思了。現在我們把整個世界上的人分成了兩種角色：壞蛋（銀行家們）和好人（所有其他的人）。以后，區分壞蛋和受害者將需要更多的想象力。

2.危機繁榮了那些廉價的，有利于人與人之間交流的消遣活動，比如說賞鳥，閱讀，甚至是聚在一起干針線活。經濟回暖之后，那些粗野的活動又將卷土重來了。

3.那些悲觀派的預言家著實忙活了一陣。然而奇怪的是我們居然對這些唱衰者不那么反感了。就算他們告訴我們，隧道那邊那微弱的光亮不是希望，而是一輛要把我們碾碎的列車，我們也能夠接受。那些樂觀預言者反而越來越不受歡迎了，事實證明他們其實是一群更危險，更使人不安的人

4.在經濟危機的時候，我們可以享受空得仿佛是專門為你而開的飛機，酒店，飯館和公車。復蘇來臨時，這一切又將被過度需求所填滿。在所謂的繁榮時期，到處都是擁擠的。

5.由于危機，物價下降了！這難道不是所有人夢寐以求的嗎？現在，所有的東西，不管是蘋果還是游艇，都將漸漸漲價。難道我們現在又要開始受通貨膨脹的折磨了嗎？二戰后的百廢待興的英國，還是魏瑪政府時期的物價飛漲的德國？

6.央行成為了人們的好朋友，因為甚至歐洲中央銀行都為了緩解危機而降息。很快，利率又將再次上揚。和像商場特價部一樣的銀行和銀行里那些超便宜的消費品信用貸款，抵押貸款說永別吧~~

7.許多大街旁的店鋪都因為沒人來買東西而關閉了，這使畫廊等一些有教育意義的事業得以搬進這些空出來了的門面。唉……危機后，喧嘩著兜售那些俗艷之物的攤位又會回來煩我們的。

8.人們開始注意食量了。肥胖癥人數正在減少。越來越多人開始在自家種植蔬菜。一旦經濟復蘇，我們國民的健康將會經歷大滑坡。

9.危機以后，人們又會在宴會上喋喋不休的談論價格上漲了。沒有人會羞于承認自己是房產經紀人。孩子們又會想要學習投資銀行學而不是生態農業學了。

10.我們將不得不適應一些專業詞匯。“量化寬松”這個詞已經夠煩人的了，關于復蘇的詞匯卻會更加別扭。小心，央行又要出售大量的政府債券去拉高利率了。練習一下說“量化穩健”吧！

11.服務行業的服務水平在危機中有了長足的提高，不論是服務員，領座員還是門童都是如此。這說明：GDP增長=人們脾氣變壞。

12.找個替罪羊是個很好的心理安慰方法。我們總是把當前的混亂局面歸功于美國前總統布什和英國首相布朗。經濟復蘇的功勞將被新上任的奧巴馬總統全權領受。他可能會因此變得有點得意自滿。這樣的結果就是：反美情緒又會高漲。

13.能源的使用又將增加。在當下大蕭條的背景下，我們認為我們已經解決了氣候變暖的問題。其實不是這樣的！危機過后，我們還將要忍受Opec的強勢和到處都是的新核電站。

14.俄羅斯會變得越來越難控制，因為油價將要升過100美元一桶了。我們要做好準備看梅德韋杰夫總統的臉色了，他將不會再對我們笑臉相迎。伊朗人們會怎么表現更是不可想象。

15.21世紀世界最大的隱患就是各國的經常項目不平衡。我們一直以來都很好的控制了它，但是現在形勢有失控的趨勢。美元會大幅度貶值。更壞的是，外國的外匯炒家到那時會瘋狂的拋出其他貨幣買進美元，以至于其他貨幣都不夠用了。

16.當中國的出口發動機又開始運作時，中國將發揮它在世界各方面的影響力了。普通話會變成歐盟新的官方語言。忘記什么SDR(特別提款權)吧，人民幣將成為各國央行的新的官方貨幣。

即使一切恢復正常，我們也將很快發現一場新的危機正在萌芽。新的危機將比這個2007-09版本“刺激”得多。好好享受吧！