Recovery Is Just a Debt Shell Game: Strategist

The US economy is still dependant on government money and the recovery will not be sustainable until private companies are willing to spend more, Richard Cookson, global head of asset allocation at HSBC, told CNBC Thursday.

"I actually increased my 'underweight' on developed stocks at the beginning of this month," Cookson said, as Asian shares closed down and European shares drifted lower. "The question is not why people are bearish at the moment. The question is why they were so bullish before?"

Cookson remains bearish on the outlook for the U.S. economy, explaining that he is concerned about what happens once the government withdraws its stimulus measures.

"The way to think of it is this: It's not a recovering economy, it's a cross-addicted economy," he told CNBC.

"In other words, all you've done is you've taken the private sector debt and you've bunged it into the public sector. That's all you've done. Now that's not a recovering economy, as it were in addictive parlance, but it's simply the fact that you've got a huge amount of money being whacked into economy."

"What you would need to see in order for you to become more bullish is the private sector wanting to leverage up — and I don't see any signs of that whatsoever," he added.