“When I lived in Buenos Aires in the late 1980s as a correspondent for The Washington Post, Argentina’s economy was going through spasms of hyperinflation. … When things got really bad, crowds would gather and watch their wealth evaporate minute by minute as the numbers went south. That’s how I feel these days when I watch cable news and focus not on the anchorpeople but on the hyperactive Dow Jones ticker at the bottom of the screen. Up 100 points, down 200, rallying, retreating, meandering, ‘looking for a bottom,’ falling off a cliff. Another day, another triple-digit decline. So here’s a question I’d like to ask Barack Obama and John McCain: Is the United States destined to look and feel increasingly like a ‘developing country’? Is this the way it’s going to be?” [editor’s note: However, for some of us, this would actually be an improvement over “floundering wanna-be empire” - SAT] (10/10/08)