WPR's The New Rules: U.S. Must Get Back in Touch With Its True Exceptionalism

This month's debt-ceiling deal in Washington did little to quell the growing chorus of complaints around the world concerning America's continued inability to live within its means. As those complaints invariably translate into corporate hedging, government self-defense strategies, credit rating drops -- Standard and Poor's is already in the bag -- and market short-selling, the U.S. will most assuredly be made to feel the world's mounting angst. This is both right and good, even as it is unlikely to change our path anytime soon: Until some internal political rebalancing occurs, America will invariably stick to its current cluster of painfully outdated strategic assumptions.

Read the entire column at World Politics Review.

Comments

[Ted O'Connor]

What irony! Standard & Poors, the Wall Street version of Consumer Reports, does more damage to the United States and the global economy than the 911 hijackers. If you tried to submit this plot to a publisher the editor would throw the manuscript at your head.

Giant defense contractors shove money at Congress to foment the China as bogeyman nonsense. China also gives the Reps from the boondocks something to talk about so that they can convince the folks back home that they are actually involved in the "big" issues.

We are going to need one tough, ruthless SOB in the White House. I don't care if they wear pants or a skirt. When someone refuses to take the President's calls...send U.S. Marshals to drag their butt to the White House. Send Justice after Wall Street. Tell the Attorney General to see if the Sedition Act might apply to ratings company reports. The sitting down and talking stuff is over.

The response from Tom's readers is painful to read. We are hurting out here. I'm ready to heat up a pot of tar and get a bag of feathers.