This is an incredible piece of journalism and will scare the pants right off of you (while gently tugging them up to maintain decency here and there). One of the best analyses of international economics and the US debt crisis I've read.

Some good hard facts, combined with some cherry picked ratios to maximize the vague scare-mongering, including obvious false analysis. J. Shaw of Harvard should be embarrassed. How to get America to save more, and invest more, is too important for such flimsy fluff as is most of this piece. One source, Frieden says "why the cost of housing has been going up. The reason is because the dollar has been rising” -- which is false, and yet this false fact is used throughout the piece. from memory: 2000 1 USD = 1.2 Euro, today 2007 1 USD = 0.7 Euro, a drop of more than 40% -- yet later in the article they discuss a currency drop of 40% as a catastrophe. Were I to write an article, I'd look up the facts -- which this author failed to do.

This piece bring together and details many of the arguments I have been reading and hearing elsewhere about the possibility of a global economic collapse resulting from current policies..some frightening scenarios are presented -- but more benign outcomes are also considered. In any event, a must-read!

With the stock market banging the pier like a caught cod, yes this intelligent conversation about the interdependence of world economies, recent economic history in U.S and the world, and possible outcomes is definitely needed.

Very good article. Lays out the case for what I've been saying for years about the news media forgetting it's mission to educate as well as inform.