Our GDP is still enormous, which shows we must be doing something right. I do know that massive centralized control isn't the answer. I also know that dropping all trade controls isn't the answer either, although ideally that would be the long-term goal. Beyond that, you've got me.

We used to be able to float comfortably above a planet filled with subsistence economies, paying someone middle-class wages and benefits for turning a bolt on an assembly line. That isn't feasible in the long run any more, but how to accomplish the transition is tricky.

Maybe Raoul has got the best answer: just keep talking and working things out as they come up.

Advances in technology and other things change things on the fly, too. In 1950, if you had suggested it might be a good idea to have your customer service operators in India, they would have thrown you out a window. Many jobs people are doing now didn't exist a few years ago. A lot of people like to talk cycles, but even in economics, you never cross the same river twice.

As the Motie said, we juggle priceless eggs in variable gravity. This is true in foreign policy as well, where we are now trying to feel our way across unknown new territory, when we started out with ideas, tactics and military forces designed specifically to blow the Soviet Union into the stone age.