PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, for example, has argued since the most recent stock collapse that only dramatic new breakthroughs in energy and food production technologies will save the economy from an extended period of Malthusian zero-sum behavior.
But on this occasion, consumers have been unable to provide that fuel - partly because they are more indebted than they've ever been, and many of them want to save rather than spend, and partly because of the squeeze on their spending power from an increase in food and energy prices at a time of stagnation in earnings.