The International Monetary Fund, IMF has said that the world wide recession is finally over and we will see growth at the end of this year. China will grow at 9% and India at 6.4%. China has $ 2 trillion dollars in foreign reserves and can throw money at the economy to stimulate demand but it is still dependant on exports mainly to the US and EU. Unemployment in the US continues to grow and people are shy of spending as in the past. Oil prices are firmly above $ 70 a barrel and will quickly rise at the slightest sign of econmic expansion and will thus act as a permanent dampener on any future growth. Japan is still unable to get out of deflation. All governments have run up enormous deficits in order to support failing banks and stimulate lending and at some point will have to address the problem of inflation. Judging by the rise in the Sensex India is a great success story. Companies are hiring again and prices of properties are beginnning to rise once more. No one says anything about the enormous government deficit and the massive borrowing that is required to finance that deficit. With the monsoons having failed food inflation is likely to continue without respite. Perhaps the freeloading press is acting as an agent of the politicians and trying to fool the people to increase spending thereby stimulating growth and increasing tax collections. Can we trust the fifth column? Who knows.