Talk about getting it from all sides. Economists want Americans to cut down on debt and boost spending all at once, even as home values tumble and gasoline prices soar.
It may all be a bit too much for the average U.S. household, particularly with an already sluggish labor market stuttering again.
A raft of economic reports this week will help sort out just how bad things have gotten, and offer some hints as to whether the slowdown is temporary or the start of a trend.
"At this point in the cycle, everyone believed we'd be on the mend, but it looks like that's not the case," said William Larkin, portfolio manager of Cabot Money Management in Salem, Massachusetts, citing high levels of applications for new jobless benefits.
As goes the world's largest economy, so goes the world, though the relationship is hardly one-sided. Uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa have helped to keep oil prices high, putting a damper on U.S. consumer spending.
In Europe, Greece's debt saga continues to rage on with no clear resolution in sight. Even as European paymaster Germany demanded on Friday that private investors contribute to a second bailout for Greece, rating agencies have warned that any type of restructuring would likely be considered a default.
The aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami is also of crucial importance to the global outlook, since some economists believe it helps explain part of the recent softness.
U.S. Federal Reserve officials have remained cautiously optimistic, saying the economy will pick up in the second half of the year and will not need additional monetary support from an already highly stimulative central bank.
But their upbeat tone is perceptibly less self-assured. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week characterized the job market as "far from normal" after employment data showed only 54,000 net new jobs were added to the economy in May, while the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent, the highest since December.
