The quick description of this video is:

Fareed Zakaria, editor-at-large at Time Magazine and host of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” program, discusses his book “The Post American World” and the U.S. economy.

Zakaria, speaking with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance Midday,” also discusses U.S. policy in the Middle East and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

Is that enough for your lunch plate?




  1. Howard Beale says:

    I glad this guy has the President’s ear. I know Alf. would rather he was listening to The Sarah or The Donald on such subjects but I’ll take Zakaria’s advice.

  2. Roland Gaross says:

    Very eloquently described the state of affairs! Now, if only more people would listen to guys like him instead of watchin’ ’em Kardishians get a wax job :-\.

  3. Dallas says:

    This guy is impressively smart. Stated in Mot so many words, he’s correct that the GOP has not only destroyed our economy but also took away our stature on the world stage.
    Tough lesson learned but we will overcome the Bush decade disaster.

  4. LibertyLover says:

    #3, Glad to see you have finally recognized that it was the BUSH admin and not the CHENEY admin.

    Good Job. Hope yet!

  5. msbpodcast says:

    In #3, Dallas said: “…we will overcome the Bush decade…”

    You’re more optimistic than I am.

    The U.S. was an unwilling empire, led by a succession of fools, that destroyed itself committing suicide through “death by a thousand cuts”.

  6. foobar says:

    US Banks need to get back to the business of investing in America, not just profiting from it.

  7. chuck says:

    When did the US ever have “fiscal discipline”?

    How can it lose something it never had.

    The US is like a person who was rich and successful and has simply spent all the money he had (and more) because there has always been more money and more success.

  8. bobbo, the pragmatic Libertarian says:

    The video summary sucks adding nothing to the provided Header. Better: Fareed discusses “The New Normal.”

    In that vein, with the growth rate of America/the West reset at a lower rate–No, the USA will not recover in the same way that we have in the past===THAT IS THE POINT OF THE FRIGGIN VIDEO!!!! A new normal: one of USA decline, and Chinese ascendancy. Its like Global Warming—how long can you ship jobs overseas and not finally change your entire society? With this JOBLESS RECOVERY–we hit the tipping point.

    Yes, the NEW NORMAL. America finally caught out in its lip service to free market capitalism while actually following the DOGMA OF GREED.

    Silly, stoopid, god-damned hoomans. How many times you gotta be told the PUKES are worse than the Dumbo’s. THE REPUBLICANS ARE OUT TO DESTROY AMERICA—BUT THEY CAN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOUR VOTE.

    Look—-Think—-Recognize your vote is a weapon against evil and corruption.

  9. Ah_Yea says:

    Obama’s policies. Yea, they are sure working…

    Horror for US Economy as Data Falls off Cliff
    http://cnbc.com/id/43239586

    Just feel good and blame Bush.

  10. bobbo, the pragmatic Libertarian says:

    #10–Oh No==You probably had several reasons for posting that dribble, I’m sure only one of them was to piss me off. It worked.

    Well done sir.

    Ha, ha. We’re all Doomed.

  11. Derek says:

    Dontcha love how they love to blame Bush for a financial debacle created by and defended by the democrats. Yes, it was the Republicans that it so low income earners would get home loans. Yes, it was Republicans that said there was no problems with Freddy and Fanny.

    http://youtu.be/_MGT_cSi7Rs

  12. bobbo, the pragmatic Libertarian says:

    FYI–bad loans and the housing bubble were bad but the new normal was created by credit default swaps–a new form of investing that was made illegal after the Crash of 1907 as it was recognized as nothing but betting. Stayed that way until Glas Stegal was passed and a few other regulations allowed this unregulated gambling again. Still allowed right now.

    Guess why?

  13. Howard Beale says:

    Don’t feed the trolls 8&10 they are just crying to be noticed.

    When they have 4 or five best selling books on the U.S. and foreign affairs behind them, B.As from Yale, advanced degrees in Political Science from Harvard, stellar CVs a mile long then I might give their criticism some attention but so far they just seem like ditto heads regurgitating what they hear on talk radio.

    It must pain them to have someone so well spoken and informed disagreeing with their right wing media deities.

  14. What? says:

    What he is saying is that Americans are the problem. Every last one of us. Until our national mind changes about who we are, what we want, and what we each will do to get it, we won’t “get it”.

    The Chinese, Japanese, and Germans, each, and in succession, had to climb out of the toilet to get where they are. It is arguable whether they each will be able to hold on to their progress.

    The Chinese aren’t finished climbing out of the toilet.

    The Indians are climbing out of the toilet “feet first”.

  15. bobbo, the pragmatic Libertarian says:

    #15–What==you say: “What he is saying is that Americans are the problem. Every last one of us.” //// Sloppy lazy non-think on your part. Its logically impossible to escape the fact that the Dems are different from the Pukes. The Dems want to tax and spend and create a Nanny State. That may or may not “work” in various different interpretations—but the PUKES WANT TO KILL AMERICA with their repeal of the New Deal, lowering taxes beyond what any society needs for stability, and LYING ABOUT EVERYTHING THEY DO.

    The choice is clear. Don’t cloud the issue by equating things that are very different. After all, you are no doctor.

  16. deowll says:

    If any of you wish to check we had restraint until we gave up the gold standard.

    If you look at what this progressive had to say, while he may not see it, the agenda put forward by the Democrats under Bush _after they gained control of the house_ and accepted by Bush so he could fight his war on terror, a very ignorant phrase, and accelerated under Obama amounts to blowing the economy out of the water.

    I only say this because they were the people who had the majority and the control to enforce their agenda.They put the people in charge of Freddy Mac, and Fanny May who set the polices that blew up both of them and are still blowing up both of them. Neither has as yet been put on a sustainable footing. They are the people that made a deal with Bush to run up the nation debt and did so.

    While he may also not agree he admitted that those nations committed to growth rather than stagnation and decline aren’t buying into the loony man made global warming scam being used to transfer billions to con men and hucksters.

    Personal thought the EU may need to break up because I don’t care what you do Greece _can’t_ pay back it’s debts and pushing things into total agony is going to cause a revolution in Greece and they still won’t get their money any more than they got their costs of WWI out of Germany. This sort of thing won’t work without enslaving the local population and I’m not sure the EU has the stomach for that.

    As for us, unless we bring out spending under control we will become another Greece.

  17. ddddd says:

    now tell me what your opinion on this is Dvorak!

  18. Dallas says:

    #4 well, I give credit where credit is due and put references in context with the crime committed. The Cheney administration was really a two in the box regime. Cheney was CEO and COO and Bush was President and CMO.

    #5. Yes, I am an optimistic American patriot. Ultimately, the pendulum swings to correct the damages done by the previous regime albeit overcorrects at times.
    However, we have a resilient system, the young sheeple are getting more progressive, the old right wing, loon sheeple are dying off at perhaps 1-2% per year. Finally we are starting to turn the corner on broad public awareness that green energy (conservation, alternative fuels, smart electric grid and transport, etc) is the future. We just need to combat the Puke party that is proxy to the established corporate rulers (oil, drug, military megaindustries).
    It will take 2-3 consecutive progressive administrations to dislodge the Supreme Corp. But doable.

  19. Dallas says:

    #9. Why are you using my term “new normal” without my permission?

  20. Thomas says:

    The reason that bullshit espoused by people like Dallas, that Bush is the source of our woes, is nonsense is that our situation has not stabilized nor improved since Obama took office. If Bush were the cause, then we should not see things getting worse and they are much worse. We have doubled Bush’s deficits, a debt load equal to GDP and 9-22% unemployment depending on how many pink unicorns and rainbows you use in your estimate.

    IMO, Obama has until the end of this year to show improvement in the economy or he’ll suffer Carter’s fate. Unless the Republicans run a dumber monkey like Palin, he’ll have no shot in 2012.

  21. foobar says:

    Thomas, the slide started long before Bush. Adjusted income for Americans stopped growing in the early 80’s while the cost of living increased. Income started to shift to the upper 5% within the US while the cost of living kept going.

    Basically the upper 5% bled savings and investment out of the other 95% by lending them money to sustain their standard of living. It wasn’t some evil plot or anything, just a systematic skewing of tax and governance laws for political expediency. Bush & Co were just riding the same populist approach that Gingrich and (eventually) Clinton followed – which Reagan started. Obama isn’t rocking the boat either. Ironically the only person who bucked the trend was Bush Sr and it cost him a second term.

    Today the financial sector is the number one business sector in the US. Shocking isn’t it? However no one overseas trusts the US banking and investment institutions anymore for fucking over not only their own country but 1/2 of Europe and the rest of world to a lesser extent. So money is steadily shifting away from New York which will just further exacerbate the problem since capital will be tighter.

    You might not like Zakaria but he’s right about one thing – it’ll take at least 10 years for US to complete the biggest write down in history. The upper 5% will have their money in Canada, Australia, Brazil, China or the Cayman islands. Older white Americans will continue to vote for Republicans as a block and everyone else will vote Democrat.

    It’s not the “end of America” or anything, it’s just the new reality. Expect the aging white baby boom generation to become fixated on one thing – themselves. I guarantee you the number one issue for the next 10 elections will be medicare and later old age security. The US defence budget will finally be cut back to prop these up.

    The US will bounce out over time, but it won’t be the same country you have now. And that’s just life.

    As for Obama, you’re right. He did inherit a bloody mess but now he’s got to put on his big boy pants and deal with one way or another. He’s had his way the new congress for the last several months so maybe he’s finally grown a backbone.

  22. foobar says:

    One other little item: the long term medical needs of US Gulf veterans from the last 20 will finally force meaningful health care reform.

  23. bobbo, the pragmatic Libertarian says:

    foobar–excellent moderate review. I will quibble: what you are describing is not a “bounce back” by my lights.

    A further “non quibble” would be to really judge the intentionality of the various players in this debacle. Really so unthinking?

    There is a notion at the foundation of American Opinion seen in the media and in the voters that our politicians are basically trying to do the right thing but they just aren’t that bright. The truth however is just the opposite.

    I find it disturbing even on the facts before us that “real” experts still cannot evidence whether or not the various stimulus responses were in net application too little, not enough, or about right. I say net application because from 30-50% of what is called stimulus was actually tax cuts for the Super Rich which is not stimulus at all but rather just the continuing rape of the middle class.

    The same rape goes on right now with the aid of our slumbering press: Medicare Termination covering MORE TAX BREAKS FOR THE SUPER RICH. That does not take place by mere bias or inattention. It is the evil of the Super Rich played out and manipulated by their bought and paid for Congressional Minions and the obsequiousness of the press.

    What should be instructive to us all even at this late date: the bailout of Detroit. It worked. Saved jobs. Cost the USA nothing. The PUKES were against it for various reasons, Obama got it thru.

    Yes, Obama could lose in 2012 if conditions worsen, which they could or only stay about the same–no recovery, as he will get no credit for avoiding the complete disaster which in the main was brought by PUKE thinking ((financial gambling, fraudulent products (though not illegal as they were unregulated) and being too big to fail)) which only continues to be pushed by them even now.

    VOTE ALL PUKES OUT OF OFFICE. THEY WANT TO KILL YOU AND YOUR KIDDIES. For the love of God—wake up.

    Yea, verily.

  24. foobar says:

    For the vast majority of the people in the upper 5% (the only beneficiary of 30 years of voodoo economics) it was purely greed. There certainly are some “evil doers” but most it happened from a gradual errosion of cumulative changes in legislation.

    As for the wall street guys, besides being the whiniest guys on the planet, they will always do exactly what they can get away with.

  25. What? says:

    Foobar for the Win. FFTW.

  26. bobbo, the pragmatic Libertarian says:

    foobar==I could go low key and say “We are saying the same thing.” But I will be myself: “You are falsely differentiating between slow erosion and intentional evil.” Missing the fact that great evil all at once, say like turning MediCare into a voucher program, is too often spotted for the truth it is rather than the LIE the PUKES present it as.

    So, you have the evil part of it right, but the blaze/innocence of it wrong. But you are closer than most here, and thats always a better place to start from. Good thing you aren’t the type of idiot/shill that thinks the Dumbos and the Pukes are “the same.” Its that kind of stupidity that is KILLING AMERICA.

    Now just why do 50% of the 95% vote to KILL THEMSELVES AND THEIR KIDDIES all to benefit the top 5%? Everything I can guess at just doesn’t make any sense. Kinda like standing at attention and pledging to a flag on a hot summer day. Does that make any sense to anyone?

  27. Gildersleeve says:

    This blog would be so much more enjoyable to read if it had a filter that blocked all posts containing the following words:
    Hoomans
    Jebus
    Pukes
    Dumbs
    Bush
    Cheney
    Palin
    religion

  28. bobbo, the pragmatic Libertarian says:

    Silly hoomans like the Cheney Puke Puppet Bush and the religion pandering Palin make Jebus cry and the Dumbs look Smart.

    BTW–who uses “Dumbs?” That is offensive.

  29. foobar says:

    FFTW! Fastest Fourier Transform in the West.

    Thanks What?, you just made a geek’s day.


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