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The failure of the German government debt auction is a harbinger of things to come.

What if Mr. Obama wishes to usher in his wonderful new world of unlimited government spending of borrowed money, and no one shows up at the T-bill auctions?

I've been at auctions where there is much more inventory to sell than buyers available to purchase. It's not a pretty sight...the sellers lose their shirts with a lot of inventory left, and the buyers make out like bandits, until they decide they've had enough.

And the bidding comes to a dead halt...'cuz everyone has gone home.

It can (and may well) happen here.

It will be embarrassing, a wake-up call, a hurdle that Himself won't be able to overcome by smiling that big ol' smile and declaring "Yes, we can!".

It may be just what is needed to put the brakes on our out-of -control government.

It's hard to see anyone with any sense being keen to buy government bonds from the British government either, knowing that the chances are extremely high that Brown and Darling will squander the cash raised, and the bonds may never be redeemable. At some point in time government spending has to be cut and the massive welfare bill has to be cut. At the same time there must be enormous rises in taxation to pay for what has gone before. The sooner this process starts, however hard on the workshy and the civil service it is , it has to be done , and putting it off in the hope of another labour term in office will only make the cure more painful.

#2 kaybraes

"At some point in time government spending has to be cut and the massive welfare bill has to be cut. At the same time there must be enormous rises in taxation to pay for what has gone before." I suspect that you may be right.

On the subject of "the relatively prudent Germans", Chancellor Merkel was quoted as saying this week that we (meaning, I understand, not specifically Germans but the West generally) have been living beyond our means for years. This, she stated, apparently, is the problem which needs to be confronted. Point me in the direction of one if possible, but I seem to have missed any statement of this nature from the UK PM. What I am aware of from the UK government is that it is planning to raise 146.4 billion pounds sterling this financial year, three times more than last year.

Mr Brown must be hoping against hope that the failure of the recent German debt auction, which follows cancellation of Belgian and Spanish offerings due to lack of demand, does not mean that the Labour UK government's intention to relay on vastly increased government debt is premised upon assumptions about bond markets that have ceased to be valid since the present economic crisis began.

I beg your pardon. In line 4 of paragraph 3 of my #3 the word "relay" should, of course, be RELY.