I was going to discuss deflation but I will waffle on about Brown.

Mary Riddell is a good writer on the opinion columns of the Daily Telegraph and has always been a cheerleader for British Premier Gordon Brown but even she seems to be close to despair and says "There is no replay of the defiance shown by Tory grandees to John Major. We are seeing, instead, the muddle and disarray facing any government opting for evasion in an age of scrutiny."
This is from today's Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/maryriddell/6151994/Gordon-Brown-the-Nowhere-Man-can-still-hit-back---but-he-cant-just-let-it-be.html
Labour left winger Jon Cruddas bemoans the fact that they are not laying a glove on the Tories at the moment. I would be more worried that Labour looks like going completely under with the Libyan affair. Fancy the fact pf Her Majesty's Government being called immoral by Gadaffi's son!! I also get the impression that the touchy-feely Obama administration is extremely annoyed with us. In fact, Gordon Brown has pulled off the incredible feat of annoying everybody. As for his moral compass, he is having a laugh.

I was going to discuss Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's article in yesterday's Daily Telegraph about the worldwide threat of deflation. Consumer prices are falling in countries such as Bolivia and Ecuador. The recent 2.2 pct monthly drop in Japan was a record. I suppose the Japanese can have more than one lost decade.

I can't see deflation happening here in the United Kingdom because of so many prices are being administered by the UK government, such as petrol and alcohol, and by the devaluation of the pound, which makes imports dearer. We should be trying to benefit as much as possible from the low level of sterling in terms of manufacturing, tourism etc because Bank of England governor Mervyn King will have to stop quantitative easing and to start lifting British interest rates quite
soon.

Apparently, the U.S Federal Reserve under Ben Bernanke is very concerned about deflation but can't do much about it at the moment since various parties such as the Chinese are complaining about their devaluing positions in U.S Treasury bonds because of the American printing presses. China is going to have to increase imports and to have a more balanced trade position with the U.S. But opening up like this would probably be difficult for the Red Army.