Sunday, March 29, 2009
"The U.S. Is Coming to Resemble an Emerging-Market Nation"
That's NOT a compliment!
This writer seems to have more than enough experience to be taken credibly.
He doesn't like what he is seeing...
This writer seems to have more than enough experience to be taken credibly.
He doesn't like what he is seeing...
In the Washington Post, Desmond Lachman writes this and much more:
"But instead of facing our problems we extol the resilience of the U.S. economy, praise the most productive workers in the world, and go on and on about America's inherent ability to extricate itself from any crisis. And we ignore our proclivity as a nation to spend, year in year out, more than we produce, to put off dealing with long-term problems, and to engage in grandiose long-term programs that as a nation we can ill afford.
A singular characteristic of an emerging market heading for deep trouble is a seemingly suicidal tendency to become overly indebted to foreign creditors. That tendency underlay the spectacular collapse of the Thai, Indonesian and Korean currencies in 1997. It also led Russia to default on its debt in 1998 and plunged Argentina into its economic depression in 2001. Yet we too seem to have little difficulty becoming increasingly indebted to the tune of a few hundred billion dollars a year. To make matters worse, we do so to countries like China, Russia and an assortment of Middle Eastern oil producers -- none of which is particularly well disposed to us."
