According to Harold Bloom, “What We Are Seeing Is…the Fall of ...

I'VE WRITTEN before about how many Americans feel entitled to a comfortable ride through life and then rush to dole out the blame when things get bumpy.

Now this entitlement culture is on display again with the mortgage crisis. Some elected officials, particularly those on the presidential campaign trail, are promising to bail out lenders and borrowers, freeze interest rates and stop home foreclosures.

Consider the recent installment of CBS' 60 Minutes, which offered a critical look at the wave of foreclosures sweeping across much of the country. What bothered me were profiles of young couples who, once they could no longer afford the mortgage payments and discovered they couldn't refinance because they owed more than the house was worth, simply abandoned their homes, skipping out on their agreement with the loan company. read more

USA's Economic Disaster Tsunami Is Under Way. Ordinary Solutions Won't �

Beginning with the housing crisis, the United States economy has been heading into a recession, with the employment situation turning gloomier than ever over the last month. The United States being the global engine, the IMF has lowered its forecast of global growth this year from 4.9 per cent to 4.1per cent.

This inevitably raises the question of how India will fare through such a widespread slowdown.

The optimistic line comes from the ‘decoupling' school, which points out that, unlike the European economies, which are completely interlocked with the US, India is capable of decoupling itself. This is countered by the ‘recouplers', who argue that, since India's links with the US are no longer through a thin line of trade alone, but through massive interactions in the services sector and large financial flows, India should brace itself for a sharp comedown from the 9 per cent annual growth that it got used to in recent years. read more