This may be a bit ["A bit?" Wayyyy off!] off topic, but I have been thinking lately about the historical precedent to our current financial/economic mess - nevermind the political part of it all, and we can't discuss that anyway.
Long, long ago the Romans decided they liked eastern silks and spices. They traded their precious gold to India for these things, and ran up a huge deficit, or rather, most of their gold went to India, since no one in those days of more honest money, ran up what we call deficits. Later, it got so bad that the Senate regulated how many silk dresses a Roman lady could own. Later still, Rome bought off barbarians who were about to overrun them [not really barbarians, in the sense of savages, but that's for another discussion] with pepper, IIRC twenty tons of it to one tribe which was at the very gates. When the Empire fell, Europe went into an econcomic depression which lasted for centuries - we call it the Dark Ages. You see, they had almost no gold or silver to coin money. During the same era, India enjoyed a golden age. Europe did not recover until the silver Thaler, precursor to the Dollar, revived trade.
Now, it's America and China, and no, I'm not saying here to NOT buy Chinese. I'm just saying that these things cycle over and over in history.
Does this make sense to anyone? ["Oh, there goes Laz with his philosopical musings again..."]
