So as Madrid and Rome play out, watch for bandages, limps and signs of slowness.

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For example, a person who limps may have an increase in muscular activity.

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Still privately held, MicroUnity limps gallantly on, but with vastly diminished expectations.

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And as the dysfunctional alliance between Vodafone and Vivendi limps along, French consumers, fewer of whom carry mobile phones than their British, German or Italian counterparts, will be the losers.

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As the crisis continues, the economy limps along.

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The argument tends to revolve around whether it makes more sense to use tolls and private enterprise to pay for better roads, or instead to keep charging taxpayers for a system that just limps along.

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And signals are what the stock market is always on the lookout for, like a vulture spotting the slightest of limps in a wounded animal or, perhaps more kindly, some green shoots to announce the arrival of spring.

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