ARTICLE: Last Man Standing, by Tyler Cowen, The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2009

Very sensible and worth reading. Provides way too much detail on Euro banking and the Asia treatment is a toss-off, but the basic line on the U.S. Is counter-intuitive (to your average American) and thus most worthy right now.

Gist line:

In the terminology of financial economics, the United States is, relatively speaking, a countercyclical asset. Its not that America profits from bad times or war but that we have a relatively greater capacity to limit our losses and eventually bounce back. We are built to fail, so to ­speak.

As always, it is the flexibility of our rules and the strength of our institutions that make us different.

(Thanks: jarrod myrick)