RE BLOCK THOSE METAPHORS KRUGMAN NYT

'The root of our current troubles lies in the debt American families ran up during the Bush-era housing bubble.'

This is not the root of our current troubles.

The roots of our current troubles lie deeper than that.

They have to do with:

1. the permanent structure of our political system (from the beginning), and political and economic practices in light of that political system;

2. most notably our post WWII laissez faire Am/Com ideology ; and

3. the fact that the rest of the world has not stood still while we tinker with isolated tax or spend or morality issues, but rather has taken advantage of our weaknesses to accrue power.

The fix for these problems does not lie in economics alone.

Americans have long needed a more strategically 'able' political system, a more consolidated not more fragmented structure, one that favors and fosters domestic development over foreign development. This aspect of the problem has become critical going forward.

A few people have begun to realize that developed countries cannot merely even further globalize their way out of malaise by use of cheaper labor and skills abroad;

or by trying to use foreign sites for manufacturing or services without soon losing the very reasons for doing so in the first place.