There are few — if any — investors who are not vividly aware of the events that have shaken the world’s financial system and economies during the past year. From the collapse in the mortgage market and housing prices in the United States, to the large declines in exports resulting from curtailed consumer spending, to a dramatic fall in GDP in countries throughout the world, waves of bad news have affected economies and confidence to an extent not seen in generations.

Moving rapidly, and remembering the effect of inaction at the start of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the world’s governments have stepped in to shore up their countries’ financial institutions and restart their economies. While the stimulus of more than US$787 billion in the United States has gotten the most press, governments from the United Kingdom to Russia have allocated hundreds of billions of dollars, and the Chinese government has made the largest commitment of all measured as a percentage o