10 Trillion reasons America is on the slide.

USA Today has a fascinating graph of America's fiscal bow-outs. Under Clinton the Reagan-Bush deficits were erased, surpluses were created by the end of his term it was peachy. Under George W Bush the US government's spending has exploded.

Their Treasury Secretaries were very ideological about the benefits of the tax cuts - but limiting the government's revenue and pursuing an expensive policy of foreign wars will always be difficult to manage. They keep printing greenbacks as an answer. Bailing out the two big mortgage firms has raised their total US govt. debt ceiling to $10.6 Trillion - though they claim they won't push it out over 10. Time will tell.

[Anyway: Winston's call to the stage is upon us, I'll adjourn to the TV and post on the parliamentary exchanges].