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一場金融海嘯之後，美國的經濟沒有倒，但美國人的信心卻跌到極低點。Newsweek 這個月出版的 2010 特刊有幾篇文章是很好的指標。

History is Still Over

by Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

http://www.newsweek.com/id/225621

All the crisis did was shift the debt burden from private individuals to the U.S. government… 

A critical underpinning of U.S. power in the past has been the attractiveness of American society — not just its material wealth, but the health and vigor of its democracy and its ability to solve problems.  Americans have traditionally taken pride in the fact that they are a pragmatic people … But the fact of the matter is that it is Americans who have become remarkably ideological and rigid in the way they see the world.  The financial crisis, which might have been expected to shake loose some prejudices, does not seem to have made much of a difference in this regard.  That spells big trouble for the United States down the road.

Why China and the U.S. Will Only Get Closer

By Orville Schell, Arthur Ross director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society

Americans must come to terms with the reality that their own vaunted democratic system has often failed them — by letting the economy run off a cliff, for example — and that China's one-party system, which is able to gather information, formulate policies, and then effect them quickly — clearly has its advantages.

Getting the Economy Back on Track

By Robert E. Rubin, former secretary of the Treasury (1995-99), currently co-chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the Harvard Corporation

A market-based model is still the best way forward…  The market-based model must be combined with strong and effective government, nationally and transnationally, to deal with critical challenges that markets won’t adequately address.

12月21日號有一篇訪問文章也很有意思。

Newsweek interview with Mohamed Elbaradei,

Nobel laureate (2005) and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

“At best, the use of force would delay a program for a couple of years.  If you bomb them, they will go on a crash course to develop a weapon.  And they have the knowledge.  You cannot bomb knowledge.”