BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — "Americans are angry," said John McCain, while debating his opponent Barack Obama last Wednesday night in their final face-to-face televised debate, "and they have every reason to be angry."
The Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency certainly got that right. The American people are angry that their retirement nest eggs are cracking, that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan keep on raging with no end in sight, and that too many American politicians remain pettily partisan when what's needed is national unity.
But Americans aren't the only people angry with America. A lot of people around the world feel the same way — and in some sense rightly so. Our elite political and business establishments have not only screwed up the U.S. economy; they have hurt the world economy as well.