to continue
to borrow and spend licentiously to fend off the threat of deflation and keep
their economies stimulated (the US is by far the greater offender). But three
surprising and powerful changes threaten the viability of a long-promised "exit
strategy."

First, international investors are beginning to become net sellers of sovereign
debt. Even the mighty United States is finding that, despite the Fed's rounds
of massive quantitative easing, in which the Fed has bought outright hundreds
of billions of dollars of US Treasuries, yields are still rising. In other
words, the private and foreign selling pressure is stronger than the Fed's
buying pressure.

Second, the credit agencies, stung by their failure to warn investors about
the banking crisis, are now emboldened enough to threaten the triple-A ratings
of member states within the EU, and even of the United States itselfCommittee, as Chairman of the Conservative
Small Business Committee, and as a close associate of then-Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher. Among his many notable assignments, John served as a principal advisor
to Mrs. Thatcher's government on issues related to the Soviet Union, and was
the first to convince Thatcher of the growing stature of then Agriculture Minister
Mikhail Gorbachev. As a partial result of Brown's advocacy, Thatcher famously
pronounced that Gorbachev was a man the West "could do business with." A graduate
of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Britain's version of West Point and
retired British army major, John served as a pilot, parachutist, and communications
specialist in the elite Grenadiers of the Royal Guard.

In addition to careers in British politics and the military,
John has a significant background, spanning some 37 years, in finance and business.
After graduating from