BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — One good way to counter depression (of the emotional and of the otherwise kind) is to emphasize the positive (of the imagined or otherwise kind).
What I have been doing sometimes these days for therapy and equanimity is recalling the Asian financial crisis of some 10 years ago. Remember how the Clinton administration and the U.S. policy elite would publicly berate Asia (especially Japan and China) for all the things they were allegedly doing wrong? Remember how often we made the point to them that in economic affairs they ought to restructure, deregulate and be more like us?
Well, that was then — and this is now. Right now China and Japan have more of our dollars than they can count and, their troubles notwithstanding, do not quite seem to be in as bad shape as the United States.