I do not agree with Government mandated Protectionism during recessions.

It doesn't work. It leads to Depressions. How do I know this? It's happened twice before in both the 1890's and 1930's slumps.

I think it ludicrous that the US is headed into a protectionist mind frame with the clarity of history show that free trade is the only way out of recession.

But I do wholly believe in citizen driven targeted spending that is citizens themselves purchasing goods they believe in be that home made local or fair trade goods.

A great outcome of globalisation has been the ability for citizens in developed nations to purchase goods from under- developed countries especially the Caribbean and Africa in goods such as Bananas, handicrafts and Coffee...(and we can even buy chooks for villagers now)

Governments, I believe, should provide safety nets however those nets when use to create trade barriers just end up tangling everyone up and not creating any greater yield.

Whilst having a totally Free market easily leads to greed and corruption which of course leads to the situations in poorly governed countries as well as what we have no in the unchecked loans market of the US which has polluted the world with a credit squeeze, I do think that there is a comfortable middle ground.

However I think we will lose that middle ground and swing far to the left with socialism returning to the world. We have fiscally socialist governments in most of the Americas, Britain and Australia who I fear will be lead by there populations to protect their own rather then look at the bigger picture.

I can only hope that the balance that Europe can bring along with a change in government in Britain that we as a whole will find that middle ground and will not be plunged into the abyss of Chinese controlled debt and the hot bed of reactionary Left and Right Wing Extremism.

It seemed to me that initially governments were doing whats was the right thing...working together to keep the global village from burning, but what I fear is the inward view of watering ones own house at sure peril of letting your neighbours catch the embers.