Today’s slide in stock prices around the world is not due to the downgrade of US bonds. It is due to the final realization, by hitherto myopic analysts, that we are on the brink of another recession, and that for all the talk of recovery over the last year or so, what growth we have […]

Some of you think I am being unduly pessimistic. So I am going to borrow from the Wall Street Journal – admittedly something I am loath to do under normal circumstances – and summarize the state of play as expressed in our latest statistics. Here goes: GDP has just gone through six months of gloom. […]