They're also deep in debt.
Latest numbers on the economy, Forbes:
U.S. Economy Grows, But Pace Still Slow: The Commerce Department reported the U.S. economy grew at a 2% clip in the third quarter, slightly faster than the second quarter and in line with estimates, but hardly a signal that the recovery is about to kick into a higher gear. Wall Street was hesitant to cheer the figure and Friday's trading got off to a tepid start. [snip]Meanwhile, the PC media spins.
Kathy Bostjancic, director for macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board, warns that the GDP figure is actually weaker than it seems, due to a large unintended build in inventories. "Heavy discounting boosted consumer buying but production gains outpaced consumption and investment, so inventories have increased. Reducing those inventories in Q4 will require still more discounting plus some scaling back in production," according to Bostjancic. The Conference Board expects growth will fall below 2% in the fourth quarter and remain sluggish into 2011.
But now we have the internet: Ridley Scott Predicted Our Fiscal Future Back in the Eighties. Networks refused to run the ad: More. Mark Steyn via my friend conservativeBrand:
So we’re not facing “decline”. We’re already in it. What comes next is the “fall” – sudden, devastating, off the cliff. That’s why this election is consequential – because the Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending spree made what was vague and distant explicit and immediate. A lot of the debate about America’s date with destiny has an airy-fairy beyond-the-blue-horizon mid-century quality, all to do with long-term trends and other remote indicators. In reality, we’ll be lucky to make it through the short-term in sufficient shape to get finished off by the long-term.
