I agree with Richard Russell absolutely on this. The Western economies are going to remain moribund for decades due to competion from the East, the debt mountain, bloated welfare states, adverse demographics and Peak Oil.

The government response will be to print money, they will have no other source of "revenue" to meet their obligations and an angry, and increasingly militant, public will not allow them to default on their promises.

Only those of us with the foresight to invest in hard assets early will come out of this with our wealth intact. The average family in the UK or the US will see their real standard of living cut in half then cut in half again over the next 20 years.