Last week’s survey data around the world was a bit more mixed than anyone would have liked, an obvious statement that yet deserves the emphasis. Europe, for instance, remains mired in a fog of zombie-like “growth” that is notable for both a distinct absence of QE’s promised impact and the related Japan-like steadiness that suggests nothing good about near and long-term prospects. In China, commentary was somewhat more cheery on a rebound in the Services PMI to 52.0 from 50.5 in September.

Euro zone private business growth remained tepid last month but activity in China’s services industry expanded at its fastest pace in three months, easing concerns about persistent weakness in its economy, surveys showed on Wednesday.

There was little sign the European Central Bank’s massive stimulus program was boosting economic activity or price pressures in the bloc, and the survey showed firms returned to price-cutting last month to drum up trade.

The happy optimism of China’s extrapolated rebound, of course, didn’t survive the weekend once the trade figures were released. And I think that is a microcosm of the economic perceptions that now dominate in a clear shift away from the “impossibility” of economic retrenchment that began 2015. At best, there is lackluster growth with continued, outsized downside risks attached (in Europe, zombie growth but very real worries about what stubborn “disinflation” or “deflation” might mean since QE has no effect on any of it) or, where economic trends are already speeding past lower barriers, each monthly positive variation is taken for the awaited rebound and recovery but with optimism that can only survive for at most few days (and sometimes only a few hours) before being rendered wholly obsolete. The entire spectrum of perception about the global and a great many (including the US) local economies has been pushed that much lower.