No More USA As Automatic Top Dog

NYTimes Conseravative columnist, David Brooks forecast President Obama’s critical theme message in the the State of the Union Address. Brooks said the crucial idea is that  “In the 21st century, the U.S. will no longer be the Big Dog”.  And at the top of his address, President echoed the idea in muted form. The US no longer is assured that it will be the  preeminent power in world economic, scientific and commercial affairs.  The US is going to have to strive hard for continued economic prosperity in the World while confronting some wicked problems at home  at the same time.  This is a crucial message of shared problems and shared  sacrifice to right the good ship USA.

And BusinessWeek has set out some of  the repercussions of the address very simply and precisely – Obama and Republicans Vie for Public Trust on U.S. Spending Cuts. Its now a question of who gains the public’s various trusts in setting the agenda for their economic recovery formulas. Details will become obvious in the weeks and months ahead; but clearly the problems are such that if a Rafael Nadal event occurs- an unexpected and grievous injury to either the World or US economy [think an earthquake in California or the muni and state government financial crisis turns dramatically worse]; the US capacity to cope is very, very limited – literally the US surplus is gone.