In the United States, the media's interest has been focused on who won the game that was the potential government shutdown. As usual the reporting is based on a sporting event and not the importance of the change of direction the shutdown represents. At the moment there is no winner or loser; that will be decided if and only if spending is dramatically reduced and government begins to shrink appreciably. Many of us have repeatedly called attention to the financial markets and international uncertainty precipitated by American monetary, fiscal and foreign policies by focusing on bell-weather commodity prices, particularly...