Stumbling in the Dark

Muddling Out of Freefall

Episodic muddling through may be the best that can be hoped for.

The search for clarity should not lead us into a protracted period of confusion.

Under these circumstances, ambitious muddling through is both the most likely and the most promising scenario.

And, while muddling through is a characteristic response of complex political systems, it is deeply destructive.

Handsome or not, this barging about a native temple... with one's boots on is a serious matter.

That is far more than can be said of India s rather wooly strategic meanderings.

If I ever get out of this here crisis alive I'll make a vow I'll never stop me old woman from flopping.

We are now perilously close to the moment when muddling through could give way to renewed crisis.

The second lesson from southern Europe is that muddling through is unlikely to work.

But it was not only Brotherhood politicians inexperienced in the ways of democracy (and skeptical of them) who stumbled.

like that in Parkinson's patients, or by severe damage to the cerebellum, which can cause ataxia.

Outside the jail, the whole country went into a frenzy, some attacking me badly, and others supportive and even collecting signatures in a petition to be sent to the king to release me.

The record since 2010 suggests that muddling through will remain the EU s dominant approach for the foreseeable future.

The current government s tactic of muddling through without changing the political system or the structure of the economy is fraught with the risk of gradual decline.

Besides, muddling through may prove unaffordable even in the short run, if oil prices decline again.

None of these options is easy each entails serious difficulties and great risks. Episodic muddling through may be the best that can be hoped for.

The ambitious muddling through scenario will be long, bumpy, and sometimes risky, and will probably end at a destination that looks very different from today s expectations.

With the only effective solutions full blown eurozone political union, or abandoning the euro ruled out, muddling through is all that is left.

America, after wandering in darkness today begins to turn back to God, Beck declared, in the typical style of a TV evangelist.

Indeed, US criticism of Al Jazeera sounds more like special pleading because of America's inept bumbling in Iraq than a genuine desire for free, open, and critical Arab media.

Greece s long festering crisis has been mishandled by all parties from the outset. Emotions now are running so high that muddling through is the only constructive alternative.

Anti austerity anger swept away the reform agenda of Mario Monti s previous technocratic government, leaving Italy, its future uncertain, to continue muddling through.

But the fundamental crisis of the eurozone has not been resolved, and another year of muddling through could revive these risks in a more virulent form in 2014 and beyond.

There are times when muddling through or, in the Chinese version, crossing the river by feeling the stones is the right governing strategy, and there are times when a bold resetting of values and direction is required.

It is now mired in an existential crisis more profound than at any point since 1945. And, while muddling through is a characteristic response of complex political systems, it is deeply destructive.

These revised agreements should include bold, enlightened provisions for infrastructure and social cohesion funds, since these can make the difference between muddling through and true success.

There are times when muddling through or, in the Chinese version, crossing the river by feeling the stones is the right governing strategy, and there are times when a bold resetting of values and direction is required. Successful leaders know what time it is.

In the case of Beck s rally in Washington DC, the link with history of rural churches and religious revival meetings was overt. America, after wandering in darkness today begins to turn back to God, Beck declared, in the typical style of a TV evangelist.

At the end of the day, ambitious muddling through will most likely lead to a higher degree of sui generis economic and fiscal integration (especially among euro zone countries), including binding synchronization of national budgets, greater economic coordination, and eventually also some limited form of debt mutualization.

At the same time, muddling through a typically European answer that limits political risk while not really changing anything will be difficult, because the consequences of the global economic crisis have not yet been fully addressed.