Here's what's wrong with the world economy: No nation has the will or the way to be the locomotive for global growth.
The Federal Reserve looks set to hold off from raising interest rates again this week partly because of concerns that such a move would drive up the dollar and thus boost U.S. imports. China is grabbing a greater share of world markets even as it professes a desire to reorient its economy away from exports. And Europe is also scavenging for demand to help contain Brexit-fed forces that are trying to pull the trading bloc apart.
"I don't see a locomotive coming down the tracks," said Professor Barry Eichengreen of the University of California, Berkeley. "The U.S., China and Europe are all preoccupied by local problems."