Ex Fed Head--Paul Volker on the Economy...

"Below the favorable surface [of the economy], there are as many dangerous and intractable circumstances as I can remember. . . . Nothing in our experience is comparable. . . . But no one is willing to understand [this] and do anything about it. . . . We are consuming about 6% more than we are producing. What holds the world together is a massive flow of capital from abroad. . . . It's what feeds our consumption binge. . . . The United States economy is growing on the savings of the poor. . . . A big adjustment will inevitably become necessary, long before the social security surpluses disappear and the deficit explodes. We are skating on increasingly thin ice."