- Strong Banks, Weak Credit: Treasury Rethinks TARP
- How Many US Consumers Will Shop this Weekend?
- Tuesday's Heavy Dose of Data to Dictate 'Risk' Behavior
- World's Largest Share Issue Priced at Deep Discount
- GE Capital Losses May See Dramatic Fall: JP Morgan
- Obama says Boosting US Jobs is Top Priority
- Why the Dollar Will Likely Stay Weak for Some Time
- Playboy to Outsource Most Magazine Operations: Report
- General Motors to Cut up to 9,500 Jobs in Europe
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- HP's Mark Hurd
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- 9 Stocks That Play Rising Water Costs: Strategists
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Gold Prices Can Double in 3 Years: Portfolio Manager
- Nov. 23: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Why Amazon Rules Retail
- Gold Will Collapse Like Oil Did in 2008: Charts
- China Eastern to Complete Shanghai Air Buy by End '09
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- JAL Slides to Record Low on Bankruptcy Jitters
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- Paul: Audit the Fed
- Nielsen Ratings Coming to Video Games
- The Social Media Gaming Threat
Text Size 
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.
- A diet high in fat and sugar might actually be good for your portfolio.
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates discuss the economy and other subjects with CNBC's Becky Quick.
- From the AIG&T to the Merrill Lychee, Jane Wells lists this year's fashionable holiday cocktails.
- One shopper explains why – aside from the prices – he gets up at 3am on the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping every year.
- Congressman Ron Paul explains to Squawk Box why he’s pushing legislation to audit the Federal Reserve.
- …you'll want to be prepared. Tips for getting the most out of the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes