THINK ABOUT THIS for a moment. We spend billions of dollars on Chinese goods. China takes those dollars and rather than spend it to build up China, buys U.S. Treasury bonds to allow the U.S. to go further into debt. The net result seems to be that China remains dependent on the U.S. to fuel its limited growth, and the U.S. is dependent on China to sustain its already-weak economy.

It strikes me that we're in a race to the bottom, and the U.S. is leading.