First there’s Cameron: world facing second economic crash and then there’s Japan slides into recession as tax hike takes toll. First Cameron:

David Cameron has said that “red warning lights are flashing on the dashboard of the global economy” and a second global crash could be looming.

And then Japan:

Japan’s economy unexpectedly shrank in the third quarter as housing and business investment declined following a tax hike, dragging the country into a recession and further clouding the outlook for the global economy.

But really, for me the most incredible news today was this in the AFR:

The growth agenda involved the G20 members submitting more than 800 proposals to grow their economies by 2.1 per cent over five years.

I suppose the 2.1 per cent is per annum, but even so, this is pathetic. I don’t recall a single one of any of these leaders saying anything along the lines of we need to get the government out of the way of the private sector. Nothing about making it easier for businesses to turn a dollar.

Instead, there’s plenty of more government spending – infrastructure is the new mantra – more taxation and still more unfunded welfare payments. We truly are heading for a fall. But unlike during the Great Depression, where other than in the US, every government successfully embraced classical principles to forge recovery, today I would not think there is a Treasury or a government, even in the so-called capitalist world, that is even thinking of using capitalists to get us out of the deep waters we are in. Truly we are going to go over the falls for a second time with not a single lesson learned.