Paul Krugman, Martin Wolf and the other big spenders are remarkably resilient. And cunning. On their advice, the world's governments put up as much as 4 years' worth of the entire planet's savings to bring about a ‘recovery.' On the evidence of the last couple of weeks, it didn't work.

In the world's leading economy, 8 million jobs have been lost. The US government disappeared almost a million jobseekers from the unemployment lists in the last two months to try to make the numbers look better. Still, fewer people have jobs now than when the stimulus began. Those workers with jobs earn less than they did then. And those who lose their jobs wait longer than ever to find a new one. Housing is sinking again, too, with nearly half of all the mortgaged houses already worth less than their mortgages. Illinois has stopped paying its bills. California is laying people off wholesale.