Occupy Wall Street went global this weekend. While most of the 900 events on 4 continents were peaceful some violence did ensue, most notably in Rome where so-called "black bloc" elements came armed with Molotov cocktails and other weapons of mass anarchy.

"This is what the endgame looks like because people feel powerless," says John Mauldin, president of Millennium Wave Advisors. "They're trying to figure out what happens [next] and it's not really good."

What happens next is debt deleveraging, leading to weak economic growth and continued high unemployment, says the author of (most recently) Endgame. "That means we're going to be in a 'muddle through' economy, at best, over the next five years. That just increases the angst."

To date, the protests in the U.S. have been largely peaceful and Occupy Wall Street members have pledged non-violence. But the longer it goes on and the larger the protest becomes, the possibility of violence escalates.

America "needs to hit the 'reset' button

From retail sales to initial jobless claims and monthly payrolls, a recent spate of better-than-expected economic data has many wondering whether the fears of a double dip recession are overblown. (See: Consumer Confusion: Sales Up But Confidence Down — Here's Why It Makes Sense)

Even the markets seem to have looked passed the previous bearish sentiment. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are up more than 5 percent since the beginning of Oct. — despite the unprecedented volatility since the debt-ceiling debate in Aug.

So is the economy on the upswing and not as bad as feared?

The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task asked that of economist Graeme Maxton and author of The End of Progress: How Modern Economics Has Failed Us. As you can gather from the title of his book, Graeme is not all that optimistic.

"Everybody wants to see some good news. We want to come out of this seemingly endless slow period of growth," he says. "But, I am sorry to say it is not going to happen. It