As the US Fed has been easing its monetary policy, thus devaluing the $ against other currencies, it might just be that the policy makers in charge of those other currencies have failed to ease fast enough, thus increasing the slowdown in their own economies.

In otherwords, maybe an overly strong Euro is part of the problem rather than or in addition to a weak US$???

I don't know, its just a possibility.

We're overdue for a little inflation either way. It will get difficult if the inflation is in the form of stagflation (High inflation with High unemployment). I'd say reight now we are close to seeing the evil Stagflation word uttered by many.

Stagflation if it occurs should be short-lived unless the Governemnt steps in with price controls or some other lame-brained fix to a pecieved inflation "problem".