So, really, the U.S. economy hasn't been doing that good this decade

"[Increased housing] debt induced spending that occurred from 2001 until 2007 accounted for virtually all the GDP growth over this time. Without the mortgage equity withdrawal, the U.S. would have had less than 1% average GDP growth for the entire period."

The Biggest Picture - Petrodollars

"At today's prices the value of oil in the ground exceeds the combined value of all the world's equity and debt markets. Oil-importing nations are paying oil-exporting nations roughly $1.5 trillion per year for oil - about 2.5 per cent of global GDP - by some measures the biggest income transfer in history."
...
"The second fundamental macroeconomic challenge is to find ways to enable oil producers to transform their resource wealth into financial and real assets on a gigantic scale."

"This is much more difficult than it might sound. Of course no-one knows what the long-run price will be, but at current prices the value of oil in the ground is $162,000bn - more than the total value of all equity markets ($52,300bn) plus all debt markets ($67,000bn.)"

"Indeed it almost exactly equals the total value of all tradeable financial assets, which the McKinsey Global Institute estimated was $167,000bn at the end of 2006."
...
"Over such a long period of time, it should be possible for global markets to absorb the petrodollar flows, but it will be challenging,"

Source: S.A.R., FT

U.S. Carrier Battle Groups - not deploying to Gulf

Aug 12, 2008 - "Stratfor’s weekly U.S. Naval Update, (go thru Google to bypass login)

"After our Aug. 6 Update, the Kuwait Times published a story - since widely circulated - that the U.S. Navy was surging multiple carriers to the Gulf. The U.S. Navy has already denied this report. As the Aug. 6 Update showed, the U.S. carrier fleet was in one of its most relaxed postures, with a single carrier — the Lincoln — in 5th Fleet, and a single carrier — the Reagan — in 7th Fleet near Japan. The rest of the “armada” was operating fairly close to the U.S. East or West Coast."

A History of Home Values

So, at this point $1 trillion isn't a ceiling, it's a floor.

Nouriel Roubini: "The taxpayer's bill is going to be huge. I estimate this financial crisis will lead to credit losses of at least $1 trillion and most likely closer to $2 trillion. When I made this analysis in February everybody thought I was a lunatic. But a few weeks later the International Monetary Fund came out with an estimate of $945 billion, Goldman Sachs (GS) estimated $1.1 trillion and UBS (UBS) $1 trillion. Hedge-fund manager John Paulson recently estimated the losses would be $1.3 trillion, and late last month Bridgewater Associates came up with an estimate of $1.6 trillion. So, at this point $1 trillion isn't a ceiling, it's a floor. And the banks, as I've said, have written down only about $300 billion of subprime debt."

How Terrorist Groups End - Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida

"The authors conclude that policing and intelligence, rather than military force, should form the backbone of U.S. efforts against al Qa'ida. And U.S. policymakers should end the use of the phrase “war on terrorism” since there is no battlefield solution to defeating al Qa'ida."

- from The RAND Corporation, policy advisors to the U.S. military for over 60 years.

The Big Picture: How Is America Doing?

"This is perhaps the most informative newspaper article I've seen on long run trends in living standards [in the United States.]"

from: Oxonomics