thursday trading...., page-23

i agree Mongo re private sector leading the economy over govt. In this case though how much of the current performance of the private sector is driven by govt spending? UNprecedented spending over the last couple of years, have left plenty of govt's/states in very precarious positions. This spending continues and not quite sure the private sector is ready for this to be pulled back just yet

Looking at the US for example, they are running a budget deficit of approx $1.5 trillion without even counting any action of the fed (asset purchases etc) for an economy that is approx $14 trillion p.a. You can only imagine what would happen to GDP figures if they actually tried to pay some of the debt back - pretty scary negatives.

The us situation is quite amazing, very surprised there hasnt been more broad scale protest . Once again all this spending and Fed action has benefitted the top end of town with bankers cleaning up, despite them being the main cause of the misery. The lower and middle classes still cant get a job and because of all the liquidity created by the fed that has benefited the bankers they are paying much higher prices for their food/oil etc.

Republicans for all their talk of reducing the deficit should be held accountable for not pushing through tax increases for higher income earners. At least to show they are paying for some of this assistance they have been provided at the expense of the less well off