Will The Global Economy Finally Get In Gear? [AUDIO]

President Obama meets other world leaders in Mexico this week to talk about how best to stimulate the global economy. Meanwhile, two economic summits will also be taking place this week in Europe.

Jersey's top economist isn't expecting anything significant to come out of any of the meetings.

Rutgers economist James Hughes says the reason is "There's an awful lot of uncertainty about what, if anything, can really be done to give the global economy a boost…And it's extraordinary difficult to get consensus among the many parties involved. This is sort of a continuation of this long-running economic soap opera that we've been experiencing."

He says, "Everybody was expecting a Yogi Berra economy again this year - economic déjà vu all over again. The past 2 years we started out strong, hit a mid-spring slowdown which led to a much more significant slowdown in the summer - yet by the end of the year the economy righted itself …And that's the situation we face this year. However, there is a difference. We have the same European debt crisis that has not been resolved, but this time around we have a slowing China and a slowing India, which adds even more uncertainty."

Hughes adds, "Global realities filter through the nation, and they come down into New Jersey, so we're not immune to those problems…If the national economy slows dramatically, that's going to feed back directly into New Jersey, and we'll see the slowdown here."

He also says, "It looks like we're going to have modest growth going forward. The one positive is the declining gasoline prices. The new lower natural gas prices, which is causing a resurgence in U.S. manufacturing…So those energy factors are moving in a positive direction, and so that may lessen the chances of a very severe slowdown."