World bankers get religion...but not all of them

The world's bankers had sworn off demon debt. They have witnessed that they are responsible for the credit crunch and the ills in the market place. They are reborn, they like to believe! But not all bankers feel that way, especially the toiletroom attendent Ben Bernanke who continues to shout and sing that the US economy is robust and will rebound within the later months of 2008. This flies in the face of the IMF's assessment that the mortgage meltdown has sown havoc conservatively to the tune of us$1000bn or us$1 trillion Yankee dollars. IMF forecast a growth rate in the US of 0,5 per cent which is hardly enough to sustain the world's leading economy whereas the Americans put it at 3 to 4 times superior. What is certain is that the US is not only in recession but is stagnating. [The Japanese must be tut tuting since the US won't take the medicine it forced down their throats when Japan Inc.'s bubble burst 18 years ago.] Washington believes China's rising middle class with save them from steep down turns. Silly boys! The Chinese haven't the clout to propel consumer spending a l'americaine in a manner that would provide US markets with a soft landing, let alone shore up international markets. So we're at a time when the US is engaging in flummery and kidding itself to a Panglossian idea of the future as the US slides down the numbers to a second rate power. Herr Bush's idea of a powerful America, one who call make others jump to Washington's tune, is like Coleridge's Ozimandis...ruins in a desert of dreams