Shoppers at a mall in New Delhi.
A debate raged at Davos over whether the rest of the world--in particular booming emerging market countries like India and China--can decouple from the U.S. slowdown. We won't know the answer to that for at least a few months, and the world's stock market investors seem mighty dubious. What struck me at Davos, though, is how many businesspeople and government officials from outside the U.S. want the decoupling thesis to be true. It's not just that they want to avoid a recession; it's that they'd really like to see somebody else lead the way.