Britain faces aggressive cuts in 'age of austerity': minister

There are times when Davos feels like a trade fair for the world's economies, where leaders and ministers come to show off their wares. There were two countries on display here on Friday morning, each with a deficit of roughly 10 per cent of national income, each with a very different approach to bringing it down.

Britain's new coalition government will Monday outline how it plans to slash government spending by 6.0 billion pounds (6.9 billion euros, 8.7 billion dollars) to reduce the nation's record deficit.A sharp deterioration in the eurozone economy has forced Britain to slash its huge public deficit faster than anticipated, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg insisted on Sunday.Official data released on Friday showed that the deficit had hit 156.1 billion pounds in 2009/2010, or 11.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The UK risks entering a triple-dip recession as new economic data comes in horrible. Today's industrial production data was frightful.

PROLONGED stagnation in British economic performance is giving ground to the “pro-growth” camp over the austerity advocates within its government. America's economy has also slowed, just ahead of a planned introduction of spending cuts and tax rises at year's end (the "fiscal cliff"). Should policymakers change course, and how?

Plans to cut debt have failed nearly everywhere I look. Greece is obvious enough and a government collapsed over it. Spain is obvious enough and a government collapsed over it. Italy is obvious enough and a government collapsed over it. Portugal is obvious enough and a government collapsed over it. US is obvious enough and the failure of the super-committee to come to agreement is proof enough