<http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040510&s=greider>
It begins:
"The backstory for this election year lacks the urgency of war or of defeating George W. Bush but focuses on a most fateful question: When will this hemorrhaging debtor nation be compelled to pull back from profligate consumption and resign its role as "buyer of last resort" for the global economy? The smart money assumes such a momentous reckoning probably won't occur in time to disrupt Bush's re-election campaign, but it may well become the dominating crisis in the next presidential term, whoever is elected. At that point, the United States will lose its aura of unilateral superiority, and globalization will be forced to undergo wrenching change. The American economy, in other words, is in much deeper trouble than most people realize."
He points out the profound implications for global trade, and has a set of proposals for how a government that actually wanted to deal with the situation might act. It's quite different from what any candidates are talking about. Some excellent food for thought.
I take Greider seriously on these big economic questions. He pointed out the likelihood of the Asian economic meltdown several years before it happened, when none of the "experts" were saying anything of the sort.
Jon
Jonathan Falk
RR 2, Box 7162
Carmel, ME 04419
(207)848-2433
