Idling

This idea is particularly powerful for things that have high idling capacity.

Economically, the United States, the eurozone, the United Kingdom, and Japan are all idling. Even fast growing emerging markets (China, emerging Asia, and Latin America), and export oriented economies that rely on these markets (Germany and resource rich Australia), are experiencing sharp slowdowns.

And yet we may not realize that in a standard sedan, of all the fuel energy you feed into the car, seven eighths never gets to the wheels it's lost first in the engine, idling at zero miles a gallon, the power train and accessories.

Now a combination of high oil and commodity prices, turmoil in the Middle East, Japan s earthquake and tsunami, eurozone debt crises, and America s fiscal problems (and now its rating downgrade) have led to a massive increase in risk aversion. Economically, the United States, the eurozone, the United Kingdom, and Japan are all idling.