A slight indisposition, no doubt?

The unhappy marriage analogy for Europe s current malaise, while depressing, is helpful.

Much of the world, especially Europe, but also the slightly less sickly US, remains stuck in a semi slump.

On the other side, Europe and the United States face stagnation indeed, a Japanese style malaise and stubbornly high unemployment.

The explanation of the post crisis malaise and people s perception of it lies in the combination of economic uncertainty and the emergence of radically new forms of social interaction.

If the latest global economic data reflect something more serious than a hiccup, and markets and economies continue to slow, policymakers could well find themselves empty handed.

Meanwhile, many of America s European allies are mired in economic malaise. And, though the US economy is recovering from the global financial crisis, America s treasury and reputation has been dealt a severe blow.

Can we really trace the roots of today s malaise back to the 1980 s? Was the Iron Lady an author of the world s current misfortunes?

Many central bankers and economists argue that today s rising global inflation is just a temporary aberration, driven by soaring prices for food, fuel, and other commodities.

And if the US (still the world s largest economy) starts to sneeze again, the rest of the world its immunity already weakened by Europe s malaise and emerging countries slowdown will catch pneumonia.

In short, government policies to support the housing market not only have failed to fix the problem, but are prolonging the deleveraging process and creating the conditions for Japanese style malaise.

With everyone busy deleveraging, economies failed to recover. Much of the world, especially Europe, but also the slightly less sickly US, remains stuck in a semi slump.

The explanation of the post crisis malaise and people s perception of it lies in the combination of economic uncertainty and the emergence of radically new forms of social interaction. Long term structural shifts are fundamentally changing the nature of work, and thus of the way that we think of economic exchange.

If what is happening now turns out to be something worse than a temporary soft patch, the market correction will continue further, thus weakening growth as the negative wealth effects of falling equity markets reduce private spending.