No Wonder We are Swirling Around the Bowl

The Bank of England cut its interest rates to their lowest level in 315 years in an attempt to stimulate the economy of the UK. According to this bit of breaking news, the bank’s nine-member monetary policy committee said the world economy "appears to be undergoing an unusually sharp and synchronized downturn." ...Huh? Let Mr. Quarter break this bit of insight down: In the last 12 months, the US stock market has fallen 40% while the US government federal deficit for 2009 is projected at $1.3 trillion, China's GDP growth has been almost halved, and the housing market in the UK has essentially collapsed. So the nine-members of the Bank of England monetary policy committee concluded that the world economy only, "appears to be undergoing an unusually sharp and synchronized downturn?" What exactly are the other alternative conclusions that could be drawn? Are they saying that we are looking at the data and, well, it could be something else like unrestrained prosperty, but it appears to be a downturn. Jesus wept.