Deficit squawk.

• Author: Wallace, Gavin
• Position: Letters - Letter to the Editor

Congratulations to Sebastian Mallaby ("The Deficit Conquers All," September), who provides a very sobering account of what will happen to America. However, the United States is no different from most of the Western world. We all face the same problem. Western countries, particularly the Anglo-Saxon countries, have been spending like drunken sailors, financed by massive amounts of credit or spending savings supposedly locked away for Social Security, superannuation, and medical liabilities in the future.

This has led to financial asset bubbles that in turn require even more spending just to purchase them in the first place. As monetary authorities hit the printing presses in order to keep these asset bubbles afloat, the worse the bubbles become, and so on and so on. But this is what capitalism is all about.

The car crash...