The sickness that pervades the global economy in the West is contraction-ism--- the moralistic doctrine of take your medicine, pay for your mistakes, suffering is noble. First there is a great agony about economic pain. Then the cure for the agony is prescribed-- more agony. It comes not only from elites such as those in Europe which are leading the world towards disaster, but also from popular blogs and online commentary and in news articles of the day. The voice is nearly unanimous: contraction!
Alongside the doctrine of contraction-ism is the voice of pessimism. All good news must be dismissed at once-- it cannot be real. Only suffering is real. There is a downside to everything, for if it is day in America, it is night in China, and if it is night in China, it is day in America. The glass half full, is half-empty. You see? There is no corner into which the ideology of relentless defeatism cannot possibly thrust and triumph.