The U.S. has lost an important part of its global leadership role. The G7 and IMF lack legitimacy and credibility. And the G20 is still working on its operational effectiveness. All this speaks to continued uncertainty and volatility -- economic, financial, political and social. Since the world starts naturally long risk assets, we could well see more investors seeking less risky asset allocations, including cash in what they deem as "safe jurisdictions." In the process, valuations -- for bonds, commodities, currencies, and equities -- could well diverge for a while from what many deem to be historically fair valuations. As Will Rogers is said to have observed decades ago, investors should be concerned with the return of their money and not just the return on their money.

With an understandable short-term mentality dominating, we should expect markets to continue to bundle what central bankers and others feel should be more differentiated. The likely upshot is continued volatility underpinned by alternating periods of risk-on and risk-off.

Difficult decisions need to be made now, and not just about individual countries but also about the composition and functioning of the euro zone as a whole. There is still time for policymakers to regain control. But not much.

Whichever way you look at it, Sunday's election in Greece entails major uncertainties. What is clear is that, by itself, the outcome is very unlikely to immediately end turmoil and uncertainty. Indeed, even a simplified analysis entails many permutations and combinations.

For the economy to grow robustly for a number of years, Washington needs to move simultaneously and boldly on a number of different policy fronts. Otherwise, actions taken in any one area would be quickly undermined by lack of progress elsewhere.