Two items of news from the United States this week may have a profound effect on world business.

The re-appointment of Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the US Federal Reserve was received as good news by the markets.

Someone just arrived from Mars might be astonished that the world’s top central banker at the time of a massive crash was not put up against a wall and shot rather than rewarded with another term.

Yet the positive reaction to Bernanke’s retention is a sign of growing confidence in the markets – and a recognition that his leadership helped to avert a much bigger crash and that his monetary policy is on the right track.

However, if monetary policy is looking good, the same cannot be said about its prodigal twin, fiscal policy.

It was also announced that the forecast accumulated federal deficit over the next ten years has been increased to “nine trillion” dollars.

They should not be allowed to get away with this casual use of the word “trillion”. What we are talking about is nine million million dollars – or $9,000,000,000,000.00.

This is just the federal deficit – in addition to which, many states, like California, are running huge deficits of their own.

This matters to everyone running a business because someone is going to have to pay for it all.

Guess who?