It's starting to look like the Summer of Love. Two reasons: The recovery is taking on a L-U-V shape globally, and it's going to require huges amounts of love and nurturing to keep growth alive.

• L stands for Europe, where slowness to confront deep damage and write down the remaining $500 billion odd in bad bank debt, mean rebuilding will be protracted and painful.
• The United States sports a U, bouncing along bottom right. But its financial giants swallowed harsh medicine early and the U.S. has the flexibility to stage an impressive rebound, if not undone by a fast-rising jobless rate at 9.5 percent and heavily indebted consumers.
•  V stands for Asia (ex Japan), the surprise region showing resiliency, thanks to its rapid Q4/Q1 inventory workdown and huge infrastructure spend by China.

Like the Summer of Love 41 years ago, it is a drug-fueled affair. G20 governments are peddling $820 billion in stimulus this year, equivalent to 2 percent of GDP. Central bankers are spending even more. The Fed has doubled its balance sheet to $2.04 trillion the past 12 months.

These actions might have cushioned a severe cyclical downturn but the structural adjustment to a world of costlier credit is only just beginning.

Will politicians and central bankers have the wisdom or the stomach to keep the drug supply going long enough to prevent L-U-V from turning into an ugly W?

Greedy bankers are routinely blamed for the credit crisis but one British-based poll of -- well, financiers -- spreads the blame more widely.

Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution Securities, wanted a more specific scapegoat and ran a poll of about 200 mostly fund managers and investors asking them to pick their credit crisis culprit. Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was the clear winner, picking up 35
percent of the votes. He has been widely criticised over the past year for low interest rate policies that helped fuel the credit boom.

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton also figured quite prominently with about 10 percent of  votes, and British prime minister Gordon Brown got quite a few.

Some bankers were singled out, including Fred Goodwin, former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland and Richard Fuld, the head of collapsed Lehman Brothers.

In a related article in Euroweek, Jenkins also had a unique culprit -- Bill Gates of Microsoft. None of the maths behind structured credit could be done without spreadsheets like Excel, Jenkins reckons.

So who do you think is to blame?

(Reuters photo: Kevin Lamarque)

For Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, 2009 may be a tough year as political battles pile on top of tough economic challenges.

Bernanke must juggle a host of problems as he tries to revive the economy. With the U.S. unemployment rate at 9.4 percent and still climbing, he faces the challenge of recovering from an 18-month-old recession with unconventional policies that some worry will ignite inflation.

On the political front, he has the daunting task of convincing Congress the Fed deserves a leading role in a restructured financial oversight system even as he addresses criticism of Fed failings before the financial collapse and some actions since.

Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd said giving the Fed more authority “is like having a parent giving his son a bigger, faster car, right after he crashed the family station wagon.”

Still, economists give Bernanke an 8 out of 10 for his handling of the economic crisis, according to a Reuters poll and he has the support of Congress members who value his steady hand during the crisis. President Obama said “he has done a fine job under the circumstances.”

The end of his term is just six months away — do you think he deserves to win another four years running the Federal Reserve?

Readers of MacroScope who live in the northern hemisphere will be gearing up for some summer reading.

James Montier, the market psychologist who is also an equity analyst at Societe Generale, has come up with his annual recomendations of what to read. The full list is here, but for the current economic and market crisis he has this to offer:

My favourite book in this category is Bill Fleckenstein’s ‘Greenspan’s Bubbles’ -- an excellent exposé of incompetence during Alan Greenspan's tenure as Fed Chairman. The next choice in this group is Whitney Tilson and Glen Tongue’s ‘More Mortgage Meltdown’. This book explains clearly how we ended up in this mess (and is based on the authors -- real time experience), and an added bonus is the insight into Tilson's investment process provided by the case studies. My final choice in this section is Jim Grant’s ‘Mr. Market Miscalculates’. I've mentioned this excellent book before, and I believe it deserves a place on all investors' bookshelves.

Montier got MacroScope thinking. There must be many more crisis books, or related ones, that are worthy of a read as the summer rolls in. How about John Kenneth Galbraith's 'The Great Crash, 1929' or Tom Wolfe's 'Bonfire of the Vanities', which still has one of the best descriptions ever of how bond traders make money.

So let's have your suggestions. What should you read to mark the crisis?

Unlike their big corporate brethren, small businesses have one key advantage they can tap when the going gets tough: family.

In a pinch a business owner can turn to family members and ask them to help out. A quarter of small businesses have a family member working for free, according to the American Express Open Small Business Monitor.

What do you think? If you’re a small business owner, what role does family play in your business?

General Motors said it will drop about 1,600 U.S. dealers as it struggles to slash billions of dollars in costs and debts. But our Detroit photographer Rebecca Cook reports that, unlike Chrysler, GM does not intend to release to the media a list of dealers hit by the closure plans. Chrysler disclosed in court documents on Thursday the identities of the 789 dealerships it wants to terminate under the bankruptcy process.

Affected GM dealers received letters by express mail on Friday morning informing them that the automaker did not see how it could have a “productive business relationship” after 2010.

GM is telling journalists to find out for themselves which dealerships are closing.  Our reporters around the country are working their sources and calling local dealers for information. Readers can help us. If you have any information on which dealerships face the ax, drop us a comment below or email tradingplaces at reuters.com.

In much the same way that analysts have been debating whether equities are in a bear market rally or a new bull market, economists now have to deal with the question of whether the global economy is just bottoming out or is now actually recovering. The two things are obviously linked as BlackRock equities chief Bob Doll indicated when he said this week that equity markets will require the economic backdrop to actually improve rather than simply grow less bad if rises are to be sustained.

The less-dreadful-than-feared syndrome has been around for some time. U.S. markets, for example, found themselves cheering the loss of  539,000 jobs in April simply because its was the smallest since October and looked to be an improvement.

But talk of green shoots, a somewhat overused euphemism for the start of economic revival, has also been on the increase: European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet spoke on Monday about the pick-up in GDP evident in certain areas; China said its efforts to boost growth were working; and a lot of institutional investors are acting as if the worst is over.

So, bottoming out or on the way up?  Comments below please.

(Reuters photo: Danish Ishmail)

If you’re one of the 539,000 people who lost their job last month, do you have reason to be hopeful today? The stock market seems to think so. And many of those who work in the financial sector say the April jobless report, which included an unemployment rate at a quarter-century high around 9 percent, indicates the economy is near bottom. One analyst said, “May looks much more favorable”; said another: “You can make the case that the panic layoffs that we saw at the turn of the year are starting to ease.”

Not everyone was optimistic. “The big question is has the peak in job losses hit? I am somewhat skeptical that we have seen the absolute worst of it, but you can’t rule that out,” said Jay Mueller, a senior portfolio manager at Wells Capital Management.

What do you think? When it comes to job losses, is the worst behind us?

When I moved to North America in 2004, I knew immediately what car I wanted to own: a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Its retro-design captured the romance of the automobile in a uniquely American way, giving it character that I felt was missing from so many modern cars.

It's a small, fuel-efficient car that combines classic design aesthetics with today's environmental priorities. But its harkening to a golden age is also a statement on the cultural significance of the auto industry in the U.S., where writers from Jack Kerouac to Bruce Springsteen have long linked the freedom of the road with the freedom of the nation.

So Chrysler's bankruptcy has a symbolism that resonates beyond the day's headlines. As a Briton, I'm spared any personal nationalistic pain from a Chrysler bankruptcy (I had my share growing up during the embarrassing decline of my country's car industry.) But I couldn't help feeling that my gold-colored Cruiser looked a little sadder when I locked its doors last night. So I'm opening a book of condolences for anyone who wants to share their memories about Chrysler, or the American automobile in general. Your comments are welcome.

There are fears that a swine flu outbreak that has leapfrogged from Mexico, across North America and into Europe could become a global pandemic,  rekindling memories of the SARS crisis that caused widespread turmoil six years ago.

The flu virus spreads quickly between humans and although it has so far only killed people in Mexico, governments across the world are taking measures to try to reduce its impact.

As the number of cases increases, what have you done to protect yourself? Have you stocked up on hand sanitizer, called in sick, or opted to walk to work instead of taking public transportation? Have you had to cancel travel plans or are you going about your life business as usual?

Share your reactions.