Originally Posted by Marcus1124

Finally, I already adressed the idea that the world economy is now less dependent on us then we are on it. Which do you honestly think is more likely that the U.S. going into a deep recession would hurt China, or China going into a deep recession would hurt the U.S.?

I will say this, I don't think that the long-term success of the United States economically compared to most of the rest of the world is some mystical, pre-ordained outcome because we are the United States. I believe it is the result of our economic system, relatively free markets, in the context of a politically free society. If we further abandon these values and systems, we can and will go down the tubes. Likewise, other nations are hindered by poor choices in economic policy, and propelled by good ones. What is striking about the global boom that you refer to, is that it is being caused by the fact that those countries have moved towards our notion of lower taxes, lower regulation, etc. etc.. Look at one of the single greatest success stories of the last 20 years, Ireland, they have economic policies that are quite frankly better than ours, and it has resulted in that nation's dramatic rise in the rankings of OECD countries. Country after country is beginning to implement lower tax rates, deregulation of industry, and so on. They are seeing the benefits of becoming more like us, while some in our country seem determined to make us more the way these countries used to be.