World of Hurt
Listen to what's coming out of the IMF. Is that Steve Roach's broken record they're playing? Global economic imbalances are more ratcheted than ever, leaving the world economy extremely vulnerable to what were once fairly localized issues, a slump in US consumer spending, for instance.
Americans were already beginning to rein in their spending pre-Katrina, pre-Rita, pre-$3 gasoline, and consumers' (somewhere along the line, 1980 maybe, "consumers" supplanted the word "citizens" as the descriptor of Americans) grumpiness accounts for most of the downturn in the Index of Leading Economic Indicators. This very morning, these consumers find themselves being kicked around by natural disasters, a multitude of new layoff announcements, and the prospect of a winter with record home energy costs.
If these consumers get kicked much more, they may find themselves to be citizens in a world of enduring hurt.