Most major economies have now come out of recession, and the prospects for real estate investment are looking a little brighter. However, some economies continue to teeter on the brink. If they were to fall, could they pull the global economy down with them?

The worst is clearly over; financial markets are functioning, equity markets surged in 2009, global trade is recovering and finding a job is getting easier,” says John Affleck, international economist with Property & Portfolio Research (PPR). “But the future is still very cloudy indeed, and I don’t think any economist can safely claim to predict how it will all work out.”

There may be more clarity than there was in the period just after Lehman Bros collapsed, when the extent of the burgeoning financial crisis was uncertain, but there are still a lot of unknowns. These i