Reply #16: I loved your sentence,

[cliss]

"Our chief product right now is debt". How's that for the World's Strongest Economy?

Businessman in the US: "So, what does your country specialize in?

Businessman in India: "Oh, we have a very labor-intensive economy, so our forte is in hand-made goods. What about you?"

American: "Oh, we have cornered the market on debt. We owe the world so much money, you can't even imagine".

Now, I read the article about Steve Roach (he's the chief economist for Morgan Stanley) and he urges the government to let the dollar fall. He wants it to go down really low. So I think we've got quite a bit further to go before they intervene (if they intervene at all).

The thing that got me about his speech was, nowhere did I see any mention of how we need to get out of this morass. Like maybe improving our manufacturing, attracting the brilliant problem-solvers (who by the way are leaving our shores), maybe taking care of our DEBT!

I just had this feeling that they don't feel that it matters. Just tinker with the machinery, and presto you've got it. Maybe they think we can still stay on top even though we haven't made our economy better.

I'm not sure they understand this point.