Like a boxer who has a habit of dropping his hands, America finally caught one on the chin. The U.S. economy is flat on its back, and the financial markets are leaning down into its face yelling out a 10-count. But the U.S. economy isn’t “out for the count” yet. It will struggle back to its feet. But if the economy hopes to stay on its feet, it will have to devise new tactics. The old, sloppy tactics of credit-financed consumption won’t work anymore.

The biggest change in the American economy over the last few decades has been the transition from making things to making loans. We Americans abandoned the manufacturing industries that once powered our economy and devoted ourselves to merely financial activities. We became experts in “financial origami.” Precisely when and why this happened will be something for historians to debate. But sometime in the 1990s, the percentage of

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I'm writing this while on a short holiday in Macau, Asia's booming Las Vegas. And let me tell you (again) — judging by what I'm seeing in Macau, there are very few signs of a slowdown in Asia! More than 1.5 million international visitors arrived in Macau in the first six months of 2008 — UP 47% over the same period last year. Mainland China visitors to Macau soared to a record 8.8 million, and in total, a record 14.92 million tourists visited in the first half of this year, handing Macau's government a whopping 51.4% increase in gaming tax revenues. Of course, that's Macau, and it may not represent the rest of Asia, right? Wrong. I am seeing the same vibrant economies wherever I go on my current tour through Asia. ...