Already, the crisis is taking its toll on the single market, not least in the balkanization of the banking system which is fragmenting along national lines.

WSJ: Nobel Prize for EU an Inspired Decision

While dating can be expensive, there is evidence that remaining single can take a different kind of toll.

FORBES: Is Dating a Good Investment?

That's the deadliest single month since August 2010, when the toll was 426, the ministry said.

CNN: Wave of violence in Iraq claims more than 80 lives

To be sure, most of Toll's business is still in single-family homes in the suburbs.

WSJ: Cities Outpace Suburbs in Growth

For investors looking to single out a few potential winners in China infrastructure, Visse likes the toll roads, ports and water treatment.

FORBES: Is China's Building Boom Over?

The economic toll has been exacerbated by a lack of potential for continuity: 70% of single-person businesses reported having no one in place to take over in the event of illness.

ECONOMIST: A look at noteworthy articles from business journals

Interest rates are falling to single digits once again as inflation begins to ease on account of the global economic slowdown taking its toll on Brazil.

FORBES: Brazil Housing Market Booming 'Til 2017

Toll Brothers, which calls itself a "luxury-home builder, " designs and builds single-family and attached homes in the Northeast, Southwest, South, Midwest and West, around some of the country's wealthiest and most populous cities.

BBC: Why the US housing market is still booming