In short, Cooper tells us not to worry about our current account or its underlying causes. I have a much darker and, I believe, more accurate view of our current account deficit. While I agree with much of what Cooper says, I disagree most strongly with his central thesis that the current account portends no major problem. To the contrary, the current account is symptomatic of a longterm generational policy that has been slowly, but surely driving our nation broke. When the last straw hits the camel’s back, which could happen any day now, we’re going to see the bond and stock markets crash, interest rates soar, the dollar plunge, and inflation take off notwithstanding the Fed’s supposed independence.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.