paulgrammer (8/28/2012)
I beg your pardon but I categorically disagree with you that US consumers drive the world's economy, this may be applicable during 70's until 90's but not now. Most US companies now are relying into emerging markets like Latin America, Asean, China, India, etc for futher consumer growth -- as the growth in North American region and European regions were already saturated. It is saturated not because of layoffs but because it reached the peak and less headroom for consumer growth.
Interesting, but while you can disagree with the messenger, that does not change the fact that economists believe it is so. The concept that the US is largely responsible for the current economic crisis is not mine. Blame has been placed on us for a few reasons. First, our consumption does drive things, as our trade deficit is the largest in the world. You can't argue with that. Second, our monetary policy is simply wrong, and is adding to the issues that we see in Europe. Most of the world is blaming the US monetary policy, so again if you disagree, it isn't with me.
Dave