The headwinds include the effects of deleveraging by households, the still-weak U.S. housing market, tight credit conditions in some sectors, spillovers from the situation in Europe, fiscal contraction at all levels of government, and concerns about the medium-term U.S. fiscal outlook. In this environment, households and businesses have been quite cautious in increasing spending.
One could construct a long list of abuses, and a correspondingly long list of needed reforms. In various countries this is being done by governments and their agencies - particularly the conduct-of-business regulators such as ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) in Australia or the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) in the United States.