The IMF, usually thought to be a US toady, has issued a report warning that our large federal budget deficit and trade deficit could cause instability in global financial markets down the road. This comes on the heels of Robert Rubin and friends saying that our problems could put us on an unsustainable path. Whether these dire predictions come true or not is, to a certain extent, beside the point. Just the fact that many foreign and domestic believe that they may come true isn’t good for our economy. I don’t pretend to understand global economics all that well, and I’m not sure anyone else really understands it either, but I’d just as soon people weren’t having this reaction to our fiscal policy.