European Shoppers Still in Funk

As of September anyway, but it's hard to imagine that news since has improved the mood.

The contraction in 2011 is rather gentle - considerably more so than in 2008 - but it's still unambiguously a contraction.

In other business, Italian government debt is now considerably cheaper than it was before the ECB began its intervention:

The European financial crisis has not stabilized yet and I expect further tears in the fabric of expectations before things can be patched together into a more permanent arrangement.