The Current Discussion: Will the U.S. financial crisis lead to an erosion of U.S. influence comparable to the Iraq war?

Two major events can break a powerful person or enterprise, club or country: cancer or uncontrolled growth (that is to say, bad decisions or assets, poor management and lack of preventative medicine) or heart attack (i.e. lack of liquidity, a just-in-time supply of oxygen with blood). The financial crisis is a mix of these two diseases. It has already eroded America’s standing the world, even though counterparties and the other side of the transactions are the closest political and military allies or significant trading partners and investors-- EU, Japan, Brazil, China and most of OPEC (except Iran) and the savings, pension funds and share values of their people. Added damage to credibility is deemed toxic when banks, in the same country, are leery of lending overnight money to each other and where the second layer of most trusted investments-municipal bonds- is frozen.

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The Current Discussion: A London publishing house was firebombed for agreeing to publish 'The Jewel of Medina', a controversial novel about Muhammad's wife, which Random House dropped earlier this year because it feared terrorist threats. In hindsight, was Random House in the right? Does this justify censorship of this kind in the future?

Censorship can be interpreted in different ways, be it state-enforced censorship or selective and voluntary restraint. But I fail to see censorship in this matter. Random House, a large publisher with vast international business, has made a business decision to drop publishing a controversial novel, perhaps one out of tens of thousands proposals that it receives in due course of business (The web site of Random House lists 10,000 books available on line for a brief browsing or purchase). Alternatively, a competitor picked up the business. This is hardly a case for a gripping thriller of writer’s suppression.

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The Current Discussion: How do we get a coordinated global response to this global credit crisis? Who should lead?

Let’s not fool ourselves. This is the Big One. The naked truth is that the financial system has collapsed, even though more fashionable softball descriptions (seizure of credit markets, sub-prime loans, credit default swaps, insured rating upgrades, casino capitalism) are the latest spin and blame. It is the day after the not-so-unexpected Financial Chernobyl meltdown, and not an aimless crisis.

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Which international affairs issue should the next U.S. president address first after he takes office?

The next president of the United States cannot avoid tackling this economic earthquake. This is not a mere domestic bank bust and it is not going to go away any time soon. It will take a long time to clean up the scene and a strategic rethink is urgently required.

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The Current Discussion: India recently passed a national smoking ban. Should the rest of the world follow, or is that stepping over the line?

Perhaps we all live to merely corroborate a futile and ridiculous, circular argument of big business in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Alternatively, we are all just beings made to serve at the leisure of credit providers, rating agencies, junk bond dealers and marketing schemes that compel people to buy and burn a manufactured product -- and harm themselves with it.

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