The problem is international. Starting in 1997, several of the major East Asian countries have been though severe crises that have lead to sharp recessions, in places like Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia. These problems have spread to Russia and are spreading to Latin America. Even those countries that have avoided sensational currency crises and financial meltdowns have suffered from high interest rates and slowdowns, if not recessions. Major countries like Japan and Canada have been depressed or are hurting.
China seems to be sagging, too.
Like I said about the stock market's role, these financial crises are important, but are not the main story. The basic problem is that competitive export-promotion and austerity. More and more, the success of the East Asian economies has been a matter of active pushing of exports to the rich countries, based on low wages, weak environmental laws, and authoritarian rule. Instead of serving their own domestic markets, these countries' rulers hoped to prosper by selling more and more exports. The problem is that while this can work for a small number of countries, Japan in the 1960s, S. Korea and Taiwan in the 1970s, it can't work for a large number of countries.