Owning The Big Picture

I found this comment by Uri Dadush in an article titled 'Global Rebalancing: The Dangerous Obsession' interesting:

"America still suffers from a low household savings rate and a large fiscal deficit, but it also ranks among the world’s leaders in competitiveness, governance, and business climate indicators. It has the largest and deepest financial markets. It holds the world’s reserve currency. With such a low savings rate and such a favorable investment climate, the amount of foreign investment that the United States attracts—investment that is the mirror image of the country’s now-modest current account deficit of 3 percent—is hardly surprising. Indeed, the United States has remained the world’s safe haven for investors during the Great Recession (previous to which the country’s external deficit was twice its current size). This is remarkable, considering America’s position at the epicenter of the crisis. The United States has borrowed at the lowest interest rates in its history, and the dollar continues to appreciate whenever global investors get edgy."

One interpretation of the "big picture" has America falling off the cliff. Another attempts to bring perspective to that picture like this one.

Predicting the economic future is a moving target. Things can change and shift on a dime.