Pay up and shame the devil?!

As my mother used to say when it was no longer possible to maintain the balance of payments in our favour.

I believe the largest debtor in the world is facing a few tricky moments in the trousering department. Could be serious but you can see quite clearly how the old Republican and Tea Party have taken up residence in Dagenham, one stop beyond Barking (not that old chestnut again... Ed.) Powerful article by Mr Krugman of the NYT about the need for imbalance and a nice little interactive graphic from those NYT readers who wished to comment on the crisis(Crisis, what crisis? as someone once famously didn't say!) Draw your own conclusions about that and NYT readers from the shades and distribution. Enjoy; as they say but maybe not for much longer.
(You're getting too transatlantic in the old textual department, cloyingly so, if I may mention it...Ed. Also could we not be a bit more upbeat, positive, cheerful even!)