The economic weakness we are seeing in the United States and the eurozone is neither extreme, nor entirely unexpected.

Technically, the US may already be in recession, as some US economists say. But even if that were true, there is as yet no evidence that this cyclical slowdown is particularly severe, either by historic standards or compared with other industrial countries. An unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent is not exactly a calamity. In France and Germany this would be called full employment, even considering the structural differences of their labour markets.