US 2012 Q4 growth was -0.1% which surprised most analysts who expected at least slow to moderate growth. While disappointing, this is no cause for alarm. Inventory draw downs shaved 1.3% off GDP growth. Worries about the fiscal cliff in the 4th quarter of 2012 tempered business expectations and investment. Defense spending and government cutbacks

Asset markets are coiled as tight as a spring, mostly wound up by the spread of quantitative easing of central banks the world over from the US fed to the ECB to the BoJ. Competitive easing is equivalent, or at least has as a collateral strategy, to competitive devaluation. In depressionary economies QE doesn’t create

‘We think of it, we build it, we buy it.’ This all works nicely until the economy reaches its speed limits and potential. Then the economy overheats and prices rise more quickly. The limits of an economy can be extended by trade and specialization where productive capacity is exported to areas or countries with cheap

Britain’s MPs have apparently lost the trust of the people. One of the charges leveled against MPs, indeed in any country, is that they are out of touch with society and don’t understand the plight of the people. This is patently false. They understand the people alright; they just don’t want to be the people.

With the ECB warrantying that it will be lender of last resort to Euro zone governments it seems that the risk of a break up of the Euro is no longer. Be that as if may, as each day passes the cost of maintaining the Euro becomes more and more apparent. The charge is not