When it comes to the markets don't listen to governments.

They don't know anything, except the fact they will be broke...and you'll know about that soon enough (re: taxes)!

The private sector is where you'll find the truth on any economic recovery. From profits, unemployment and company extinctions; which all effects the real economy (us). Governments can make statistics seem nicer, work on confidence and generally sound like idiots (including their incumbent central banks).

From Reuters (re: Siemans:

"The chief executive of German engineering group Siemens (SIEGn.DE), Peter Loescher, does not see an end to the global economic crisis, he said in an interview published on Monday.

"People are talking about the biggest downturn for 50 years but I think it is unique in terms of speed and its global aspect," he told the Times.

"For us as a company, across our businesses, we don't have any reliable indicators that we see the bottom of the crisis," he continued."

This will be an ongoing blog post.