Via Blondesense, a Tom Paine dicussion about economic policy and China, and more from the idiots who brought you the fallen Saddam statue.

Yes, the Red Menace that we spent so many years fearing as a military threat now represents a far more serious economic threat. Mao must be turning in his grave with the news that no less than six U.S. Cabinet members are on their way to the Middle Kingdom on Wednesday to beseech, beg, lobby and try to persuade the new mandarins not to sell off their vast reservoir of dollars.
snip
Already, as I have reported , the Treasury Department has opened a global crisis management center that sounds very much like an economic war room. It is headed by none other than Jim Wilkinson, the GOP info warrior who ran the Coalition Media Center during the opening days of the Iraq War, when great victories were all we read about in the news

Wow. I feel so assured the Treasury department will deal with the hard facts and make informed choices. Not. Meanwhile, as housing slumps and auto sales tank, our central and government bankers are (and this is from the WSJ!) “betting the old rules don’t apply.”

We’re so fuqued in the coming years. Who’s ready to join me on the commune?