I have never been more terrified about economics in my life than when I took a class in international trade law and policy and figure out just how the US economy had been run for the past 30 or so years. It's such a classic catch-22 that we can't afford how much we spend, but if we don't spend it, the rest of the world doesn't have anyone to buy it, so they can't afford to not loan us the money to we can spend it.
Bush is right, for once, that this is not a problem that's going to be solved in one conference, and I sure hope that Obama is willing to make some hard choices and pick some really smart people who understand how international finance works. Some good reads there, rb, though I don't have any more specific thoughts at the moment.
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