"What effect must it have on a nation if it learns no foreign languages? Probably much the same as that which a total withdrawal from society has upon an individual." --G.C. Lichtenberg
Paul Krugman's latest column is, as usual, right on the money. But he doesn't go far enough. If the only thing between us and a serious recession is the strength of the housing market, we've got bad troubles. Among the problems we're facing: GDP figures trending strongly downward, a crisis of investorfaith, shaky corporate profits, huge pension liabilities, an unprecedented decrease in the wealth of consumers, extremely high levels of consumer debt, a near-certain liquidity crunch due to serious banktroubles, a sliding dollar which is both the result, and cause of further, declines in foreign investment, rising unemployment, and a ballooning federal budget defecit that will soon put strong upward pressure on interest rates.
