[redgirlinabluestate]

America no longer has the internal wherewithal to fund the rapid growth of its economy. Suffering from the greatest domestic saving shortfall in modern history, the US is increasingly dependent on surplus foreign saving to fill the void.

It seems, we need to address this underlying problem if we ever hope to assure our national security.

[rellimpank]

--btttp-

[Sarastro]

As yes, the savings shortfall again.

The problem is we don't know whether we're saving because we don't have the right measures. The economic data aggregated to calculate national "savings" are old-economy data. If you spend less than you make and put the balance in the bank, that's counted as savings. If you buy bonds or stocks, that's counted as savings. Why? Because these are expected to pay off in the future. But if you pay college tuition, that's counted as consumption even though it will have a higher future return than investments in bonds or a diversified stock portfolio. If the U.S. counted investment in education — or, more broadly, development of knowledge capital — as savings, we'd have a much better idea of where we stood.