Gary Gordon, president of Pacific Park Financial, an investment advisory firm, says he is “not buying anything at the moment until the world rights its ship." But for investors who do want to trade on a bearish view of the global economy, he suggests the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund, which tracks a widely used dollar index, and CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust, a pure play on the yen.

Michael Rawson, an ETF analyst at Morningstar, also points to the Powershares dollar ETFs — there is a Bearish Fund as well as the Bullish Fund — as options for taking a position on the global economy. But he has mixed feelings on their structure.

Both track the U.S. dollar index, which is based on a trade-weighted basket developed in the 1970s by the Federal Reserve . Rawson points out that those weightings don’t really reflect current trade balances: for example, there is no emerging-market component, and “the dollar bullish version has a 57 percent weight toward the euro.”

With all that's going wrong in the euro zone , that may not be what investors want in a currency safe haven.

Taking a Healthy Approach to Real Estate

Qualcomm's Jacobs: Mighty Payoff to Mobile Medicine

Alzheimer's: Are We Ready for the Coming Epidemic?

Skin Cancer Thrives as Tanning Culture Survives

As Waistlines Grow, So Do Refrigerator Sizes

More Healthy Business