Peter Costello, I notice, is banging on the evil deficits drum as if this Labor Government is going to undo all his good work by acting to try and stop the country going down a depressionary gurgler. The former Treasurer took a moment while speaking at the annual KPMG Couta Boat classic yacht race in Sorrento to say the Rudd Government was set for a "challenging year". "I think the Government will find it's much harder to build financial strength than it is to spend it," he told the assembled corporate yachties. Meanwhile in the United States the recent recipient of the Nobel prize for economics, was publishing something of a nightmare scenario in the New York Times where it takes Congress months to pass a stimulus plan, and the legislation that actually emerges is too cautious. “As a result,” wrote Krugman, “the economy plunges for most of 2009, and when the plan finally starts to kick in, it’s only enough to slow the descent, not stop it. Meanwhile, deflati