This news, reported in the Times, is a complete indictment of the Keynesian stimulus Alistair Darling unveiled at the Pre-Budget Report. It also highlights the huge costs of ruinous policy choices in the last decade - from high corporate taxes to regulations that make energy more expensive - that have hurt other industries and left Britain overly reliant on the, now contracting, financial services sector:
"The outlook was also dire for the United States and the eurozone, whose economies were seen contracting by 1.6 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively.
Hardest hit of all, however, would be Britain. The IMF revised its expectations for the contraction in the UK economy upwards from 1.3 per cent to 2.8 per cent."