We need to recognize that:

* The export of heavy industry from the U.S. to other nations is a key factor in the present trade imbalance, and in the terminal dependency upon monetary manipulation and, more benignly, the service economy, which are dysfunctional and unsustainable, respectively.

* A large part of what remains of U.S. industry is dedicated to military production, which is a net negative for the real economy, and that dependence upon the external projection of power has destroyed the integrity of the U.S. economy, while building a fifth column in the form of a military-industrial complex that tends to lock the U.S. in to this destabilizing policy.

* Other centers of power have emerged as the internal decay of the U.S. through militarism and other corruption has undermined U.S. economic power and military alliances.

We need some truly creative ways of addressing these problems, such as:

* Making deals with nations with net surplus reserves that have grown tired of financing U.S. overspending, to obtain additional investment in exchange for the U.S. (and its clients) drawing back from present aggressive policies, and also by using these funds for a massive conversion of the military industry to civilian productive purposes (e.g., green technology) that the world needs and that can therefore ultimately correct the trade imbalance.

* Cutting the military budget and using the proceeds for part of the required stimulus.

* Including as part of the stimulus package Federal grants for worker-run cooperatives to take over idled manufacturing facilities, as happened during the recent Argentine crisis.

* Putting zombie banks out of their misery and nationalizing them to prevent the chain reaction of failures, while replacing the credit formerly supplied by these failed institutions with direct public investment, instead of pouring TARP funds down a bottomless pit of financial chicanery.

* Tight regulation of what remains of the financial sector.

Can we do it? It comes down to whether we have the will to survive.

At my age, I remember when a million was a mind-boggling number. Nowadays, a billion does not impress. The new shocker is in the trillions (10.2 trillion to be exact) to where our nation’s debt level now stands.

Is there no consequence? Can we continue to spend our way out of miserable economic times? It is my opinion that until the conscience and morals of the country change the degringolade will continue.

When can we expect to see a change? Only after a major misery of catastrophic proportions, do we become moralists and see the white light at the end of the tunnel that will bring us back from the other side.