Derek Brower and Kwok W Wan, LONDON: Anyone who, a year ago, said 2011 would see civil war in Libya; Muammar Qadhafi toppled and executed; revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt; a revolt in Syria; the quashing of a rebellion in Bahrain by Saudi Arabia; a new nuclear crisis; the near-collapse of the Eurozone; and a renewed pessimism in the global economy should be a candidate for some kind of Nobel prize.
We certainly didn't predict it all, and in last year's outlook for 2011 we got a few things wrong, too.
The euro didn't strengthen, as we expected it would - though better minds also expected more action from Europe's leaders. Electric cars didn't make an impact on the global automobile market - or, if they did, everyone was too worried about everything else to notice. Despite their strength, Chinese national oil companies didn't go on the kind of shopping...