Yes, agree the Scandinavian model seems like more of an ideal: providing sustainable growth, while granting the greatest political freedoms to the people. The same kind of thing a certain group in Philadelphia once set out to guarantee for this country...

But when are we going to get the NASCAR crowd up to speed? I don't know how we will ever get things straight when there exists such a vast pool of ignorant voters to exploit. Better communications technology has just made it easier for the neo-conservative hacks to get their message to the masses; I doubt we see many Red-staters here on Salon.

I think we're doomed to our more Cowboy-style economy for the foreseeable future.

The recession of the early 80's was pretty steep. Double digit unemployment and interest rates in the teens... I don't think people realize how bad things were, and they didn't end until oil prices tanked in 1983, I think it was. So therefore, I don't see this as one continuous 60 year boom.

I see the recent troubles as being caused more with a total unloosening of government oversight of the economy, and runaway inflation caused by defense spending (we really have no idea exactly what this occupation of Iraq is costing us).

The panicked 0.75 interest rate cut shows just how incompetent and politicized the current administration is, compared even to Reagan's adminstration. Greenspan's trial by fire was the 1987 crash, and he handled it with relative aplomb; the Fed was still politically independent. The current, hyper-politicized government has no interest in taking a serious approach to governance, and we're not going to see exactly how bad things are until they are gone. In Bernanke they've got a Fed chairman they can bully; we're not going to see any real medicine until these jokers are out of office.

There have been a couple reports that the Treas. Dept., and the Labor Dept. have skewed a lot of the recent data to make the economy appear more rosy than it really is. If we have been adding jobs, I certainly don't see where (maybe a few thousand contractors in Iraq, here and there). And I wouldn't be surprised if the true inflation rates are far higher than the numbers the Bush-appointee gov't economists have been cranking out.

I'm guessing people like Soros with their vast economic resources have a much better grasp of where things stand.

If I'm wrong I just don't see where Soros thinks constant political intervention over the last 60's years has averted economic corrections. Unless he's referring to all monetary policy as executed by the Fed... but if these policies simply delay true market correction, then what is the alternative? Do nothing and suffer through the insanely destructive booms and busts like those seen throughout the 19th century?

I agree this article is complete garbage. She's just trying to make a story out of nothing. Same thing could be written saying "Who owns the future?" and interviewing a bunch of fortune tellers. It would have just as much relevence as this article.

This Hope guy is definitely a scam artist, and his "legal arguments" are ridiculous, as pointed out several times by quicker posters than myself. Yet she attempts to give them some sort of validity (perhaps to justify the article), rather than calling them for what they are: a total farce.

As with all human endeavors, the issue of control will be settled by who has the biggest guns. Getting to the moon first and setting up shop will be meaningless if the U.S., Russia, or the Chinese have the ability to simply nuke you off it (no question they all have the will). Your spurious legal arguments aren't going to make much of a difference if you can't defend yourself. And you can bet once there's money to be made out there, all spacefaring nations will suddenly make quantum leaps into militarizing outer-space.

The author also makes it sound like getting to the moon and mining helium isotopes is the whole battle... never mind the fact that no one has found a way to create an energy efficient, controlled fusion reaction yet. If they did, our energy problems would be solved even without going to the moon.

All in all a poor excuse for journalism. This kind of tripe belongs in TIME or PARADE.