"Announced" deficits....

[ajl]

Sask is likely the best managed jurisdiction in the world right now. Unfortunately the bar has been set very low. The other mistake that people are making is believing that it is possible to return to strong growth in the future and balance the budget that way. In the mid 80's the US posted 22 consecutive quarters with over 5% growth and that shrunk the budget shortfall big time then. That will never happen again. The combination of an aging population and big debts will ensure that economic growth will be weak forever. So governments will have to budget accordingly and since none of them can do that the fate of Greece awaits us all.

[fjlip]

And how do we deal with fear...

Stocks around the world fell Tuesday as sliding oil prices added to concerns about the health of the global economy. Brent crude oil was down 3.1% at $33.19 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate fell below the $31 mark as hopes for a deal on production cuts faded. Stocks in Europe and Asia moved lower, while futures pointed to a 0.7% opening loss for the S&P 500. Changes in futures don't necessarily reflect market moves after the opening bell. Steep declines in the oil price have hit equity markets hard this year as investors fear it might signal slack in demand from the world's largest energy consumers. While low oil prices should boost consumer spending and help compa-nies save on costs, the underlying concern among investors is whether the decline in oil prices and economic weak-ness in China foreshadow a global recession, said David Donabedian, chief investment officer at Atlantic Trust Pri-vate Wealth Management. While Mr. Donabedian doesn't believe a global recession is imminent, he expects stocks to struggle to regain traction in the coming weeks given the persistent headwinds around China, oil, and the corpo-rate earnings season. The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 1.5% halfway through the session, with losses concentrated in the energy and banking sectors. (DJ)

[Horse]

fjlip What are you saying All those money bags sitting in a large poker game are not sure where to find new suckers to set in the game? Facebook $735.00 and dont produce SFA. Great toy but actuly useless.

[cottonpicken]

Cut spending. I suspect Wall and company know this but everyone else is doing it so what the heck at least we will be the last one to crash sort of because polificacy of our eastern friends will in fact spill over onto us in the fx and bond areas.