“As much as anything else, it is this death of optimism that is killing America.”

Where did the can-do spirit go? Where did the optimism go? We should admit the problems that exist, sure, but there is a quality of endless complaining and whining, fear-mongering and arguing and quibbling for meaningless tiny advantages… all things that we should reject. We’re a Show-Me nation. A can-do nation. We see a problem, we fix it, breaking a few eggs along the way, but then we fix those too, eventually. But we focus on getting the damn job done, and done well and proudly. That is, we used to be.

- So right, DQ. This should be any Republican candidate’s campaign slogan.

As several pundits have noted, bold headlines on the stockmarket’s fall, barely a few lines devoted to the rebound. The MSM has simply become a propaganda outlet for the Left.

“The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.” …

“Beijing may use its $1.33 trillion (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress.”… “Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.” … “foreign control over 44pc of the US national debt had left America acutely vulnerable.”

In #14, Oldflyer comments, “people all over the world own our national debt. When I was a kid I owned part of it in the form of War Bonds.”. I agree with Oldflyer that that would not be a problem in general. However, when other governments have accumulated vast dollar reserves AND have direct control over a large portion of the national debt - when it is not individuals but unfriendly governments themselves - then we have a national security risk. I think the scope of this risk makes uncontrolled illegal immigration on our southern borders look as dangerous as a mosquito.

But, if history means anything at all, then the safest place for your money, *in the long term*, is the U.S. stock market. Plainly, diversification is good because none of us knows the future. But putting the money in the mattress because all those nasty hedge funds are manipulating the market for their own ends will make you poor and bitter. While the evidence is really clear that investing in the American economy will make you wealthier, and (presumably) happier.

What really happened is that the initial reaction was negative (which the story picked up), but the market then did bounce, which the headline writer (who came along later), picked up. Useless.

“Recent events show that financial innovations meant to distribute risk can end up multiplying it instead, in ways neither regulators nor investors fully understand. Mr. Grantham, the Boston money manager, says his portfolios are behaving in ways he hadn’t expected.

“Fed officials believe that even if their policies led to housing and debt bubbles, the strength of the overall economy shows that the policy was, on balance, the right one. Of course, that assumes the current problems don’t culminate in a recession.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118643226865289581.html?mod=djemITP