U.S. Soldiers and Shoppers Hit the Wall - New York Times

I usually agree with Cohen's analysis and that's true for most of this piece, but I don't agree with the highlighted conclusion. Universal health care will in no way substitute for the profligate spending patterns of many Americans, particularly the ones who have fallen for the consumption mentality rather than embrace savings habits. And where will the dollars come from to pay for universal health care?

The new President and Congress will need the cohones to reform Medicare and Social Security and the entitlement thinking of the American people that underlies them.

But as Benn Steil, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations, suggested: "We could be seeing a secular shift in confidence in the dollar as a store of value as the impression grows that the United States, to some degree, is losing control of its destiny."

I expect the United States to bounce back, but not quickly. The central fact confronting the next president will be the new limits on U.S. power, both military and economic.

The central challenge will be the provision of needed reforms, primarily universal health care, that begin to alleviate the financial strains on median American families and allow them to get back to saving rather than leveraging assets in a phony consumption boom.

U.S. Soldiers and Shoppers Hit the Wall - New York Times