Posted 4/7/2008

"BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?"

During the Great Depression of 1929-1941, the country became progressively poorer and more desperate.

Over 25 percent of the workforce were without jobs, despite the drastically falling wages of the times. None of President Roosevelt's audacious economic programs seemed to work.

The poor became more and more raggedy. Eventually some were reduced to mere tatters.

Then a political cartoonist with flair for genius portrayed a poor man clothed in nothing but a beaten hat and a barrel, asking, "Brother, can you spare a dime?"

Finally World War II came along, taking the country from poverty into prosperity.

But now there's another prominent man walking around in hat and barrel, asking for a handout.

Who is it?

It's Uncle Sam.

With his mammoth trade and fiscal deficits, Uncle Sam has been reduced to beggar status. But he's different from the man in the barrel. Today, Uncle Sam's line is, "Brother, can you spare a trillion?"

He goes to Saudi Arabia, hitting up the Saudis for a trillion dollars a day to keep America running. Then he heads over to Dubai, pleading another trillion from the new super-rich folk in that desert island.

Then he's off to China, where he cadges another trillion dollars from the friendly folks in Beijing who want us to keep buying lead toys and jewelry.

He makes many other stops, begging a more modest quarter-trillion in Moscow, Tokyo, Taiwan and Singapore.

Fortunately for America, Uncle Sam has been successful in borrowing three or more trillion dollars a day from the rich folks in the Middle East and Asia. Without all those solicited trillions of dollars from abroad, the entire United States government would shut down.

Of course, wearing a barrel does cramp one's style, let alone freedom of movement. And who in the world has ever had respect for a man wearing a barrel?

President Bush went to Saudis and asked the sheiks to pump more oil to lower prices. Can you imagine the conversation?

Or in China:

Or in South Korea:

Or in Singapore:

You can see how being a beggar nation tends to affect our foreign policy. In comes the debt and out goes the leverage.

It's hard for the world to accept leadership from a man in a barrel.

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