The budget deficit is exploding, with the annual total now looking to be around $1 trillion:

The excess of spending over revenue in January rose to $83.8 billion, compared with a $17.8 billion surplus in the same month a year earlier. Spending gained 30.6 percent, while revenue dropped 11.4 percent. Corporate tax revenue in the past four months is down 44.3 percent from a year earlier

, and if we weren’t at risk of entering a deflationary spiral, I’d be concerned about inflation.

Speaking of deflationary spirals, the trade deficit hit a 6 year low, not because we are exporting more, but because no one is buying anything.

No one is borrowing to finance, or refinance their homes either, with U.S. mortgage applications falling to an 8-year low.

Overseas, we have the Bank of England predicting that inflation in the UK will be ½% two years from now. Me, I’m expecting deflation, and the stagnant GDP that goes along with it.

The UK economy is even more heavily underwater, than that of the US, so it’s likely to get even worst there.

Further east we have the Russian bond market completely seizing up.

In energy and currency, we have oil down on reports of diminishing demand, and the dollar up on reports that the conference committee has cut a stimulus deal. (More on that later)