What planet are you on Brendon? Tralfamadore perhaps? That Vonnegut planet may seem about the only remotely "American" concept of any relevance to your perspective, especially given the situation we - and Americans - now face.

Trade?! Take a good look at the now very shifted goalposts. Sunday saw the second mass bailout (USD 269 billion) for Citigroup, which is no doubt meant to keep sucking the US' public treasure, and will spread to the other big banks. Then on Tuesday Hank Paulson sets up another plan to loot the Fed (by $800 billion) to try soaking up just a portion of the toxic sludge of derivatives/fake money. We now see the US-based bail-out expenditures and commitments reach $8.5 trillion!

And you wonder about Obama and trade with Oz? How about some trade in 1923 Reichsmarks, because that's about the only kind of "trade" that would have any meaning in this hyperinflationary scenario? Obama, like Bush, Pelosi, etc., has backed these bailout scams all the way - not even a whisper against them.

btw, just an anecdotal counter to the tired, tripey and hypey hooplah about Barry O'Bammer's supposed "soaring rhetoric" (hope, change, belief, me, vacuum, etc.). When visiting a convention of Native American chiefs, Obama earned himself the native-sounding name "Walking Eagle", which apparently made him even more chuffed than usual. However, a chief later explained the name's meaning: "He's so full of sh|te he can't fly!"

Can't fly! yuk yuk. How droll.

No grand forecasts or even game predictions in this. The US will continue doing what it's always done - looking after its own interests, free trade be damned.

Obama's inherited a poisoned chalice alright. Look at what the moron-in-chief has left in his wake. There'll always be room for his detractors to sink the slipper. He hasn't even assumed power yet his opponents are already indulging in projection.

Huh? "The US will continue doing what it's always done - looking after its own interests".

So Paulson and the Goldman/JP Morgan toadies (inc. Bush, Obama) are effectively "the US"? And they're "looking after the US/ interests" by screwing the US Fed - and thereby the US people?

Drugs anyone?

Perhaps, to be more precise, I should say the US government will look after the US government. Good heavens, if governments made decisions based on what's good for the people they'd be voted out in a flash.

OK bennie - think about it, maybe five seconds max...

The US government is SCREWED, and it's been mostly by screwing itself. Soon the USG's federal employees will probably find themselves in the same predicament as their counterparts in Arnie's KALIFAWNIER, where the psycho-steroid popper has been even more energetic in screwing over the government of the sixth-largest economy.