Asia This Day:Fed's Fisher in Sydney;China Services;Shanghai Golf

A top central banker,Richard W. Fisher,who is President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas,has bitterly criticised the U.S. Government for the inept handling of the federal budget,thus hindering the Federal Reserve's efforts to help the economy recover.Mr.Fisher thus echoed the frustration of the American people with the recent government shutdown and sequestration.
I am not a proponent of increasing government spending without restraint,Fisher,whose father was born in the Australian state of Queensland,said in a Sydney speech to business economists.The excessively over-indebted US Government has been hog-tied,prevented from providing stimulus.It has thus provided a counter-cyclical,suppressive role.The inablity of our government to get its act together has countered the pro-cyclical role of the Federal Reserve.We have a government that hasn't been able to agree on a budget in 5 years;that has historically,under both Republican and Democrat presidents and Congresses,spent money and committed itself to fund long-term programs without devising revenue streams to cover current costs or fund future liabilities.
One could say that GDP would have risen at 3.2 percent had government expediture increased at the same rate as private expenditure.Or,more modestly,if government had just been held constant,instead of contracting,GDP would have grown at an annual rate of 2.6 percent.
Under these circumstances,it is no small wonder American businesses are not expanding and growing jobs at the pace we at the Fed would like to see.It is no small wonder that our economy is growing at a substandard pace compared to previous recoveries.It is no small wonder that the most expansive monetary policy the Fed Open Market Committee has ever engineered has been hampered from accomplishing what it set out to do,Mr Fisher complained.*
China's services sector grew the most in thirteen months in October,a report from the National Bureau of Statistics shows.The services PMI rose to 56.3 in October from 55.4 in September.*
Most Asian markets fell in early Monday trading,with Japan's Nikkei index down 0.88%,perhaps disconcerted by Mr.Fisher's remarks.*
In golf,American Dustin Johnson won the PGA Tour's World Golf Chmapionships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai in a memorable tussle with England's Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell of Scotland.Johnson said it was the most important win of his career,given the field and the tournament.It was his eigth PGA Tour victory.He praised HSBC for their excellent work on the tournament.
Johnson,Poulter and McDowell spurred each other on with an exhibition of accurate ball-striking.China's WC Liang also played well,tying for fifteenth with his eleven under par 66.Poulter and McDowell will go on to the Turkish Open this week in the European Tour's Race to Dubai.