Our trip to Paris served as a brief distraction from the “good news” chatter that MSM floods us with. “Global confidence index holds at record high as signs recession has ended,” reads Bloomberg. Yesterday, Chairman Ben indicated that the recession is over, sending stocks and commodities higher.

It’s a difficult question to ponder as the state of the world economy is so fragile. Right now, GDP growth stems exclusively from the government’s stimulus package. But once Obama and his cronies are finished fixing the economy, what will the fuel the next leg of the recovery?

European shares touched a 10-month high on Friday on optimism for a global economic recovery and with Nokia and results from U.S. bellwethers boosting the technology sector.

Is the rally over? Not at all! The world’s bankers say the economy is recovering. Investors believe them; they’re bidding up stocks.

European and Asian stocks extended last week’s rally on Monday and crude oil marched higher after U.S. economic news and stronger-than-expected data from the euro zone spurred expectations for economic recovery.

The dollar edged up against the euro and yen on Monday in extremely thin trade as Wall Street surrendered earlier gains and traders repositioned themselves ahead of U.S. consumer and housing data due this week.

Madrid, Spain

Two important headlines this morning, both of them fraudulent:

“Chinese economy bounces back,” says one headline in theInternational Herald Tribune.

“JPMorgan profit soars despite downturn,” says another.

When rumors of the Swiss central bank again intervening to drive down the value of the Swiss franc hit the world’s currency trading desks late last week, it underscored just how hard global governments are fighting against the strong currencies that can derail exports while also blunting consumer demand at home.

We’ve been musing on the fate of US debt for some time now. It’s no secret that we’re bearish on the fate of US Treasurys and the buck. (It’s no accident, dear reader, that your editor lives outside the US of A. We see the threat of inflation on the horizon, a dark and foreboding cloud, and we don’t like it one bit.) And the mixed signals from China and Russia on their Treasury holdings doesn’t make us sleep any easier at night.

We keep having bad dreams about all the phony money central banks are creating to ‘fix’ the economy. This is not a figure of speech. We are actually having nightmares about this. We wake up in cold sweats.