Citizens Against Government Waste is running a powerful new one minute ad on how bad economic policies in Washington can change the balance of power in the world to the benefit of foreign rivals. The "Chinese professor" ad is set in the year 2030 and can be viewed at either the GAGW site or on YouTube. The professor is lecturing his large class on "why do great nations fail?" Throughout history the cause of decline has been the running up of large deficits through reckless spending. In the case of the United States, the professor notes, "we owned most of their debt and now they work for us." The students then join with the professor in laughing at the foolish Americans.   There are some problems with the details if not with the overall validity of the argument. The Chinese scholar criticizes Washington for resorting to "so called stimulus spending" to fight the recession. But Beijing used a $586 billion stimulus package which,...(Read Full Post)