We Don' Need No Steenking Bailout

As a Canadian, I've been following your credit crisis closely, wondering if we're next. One factor fmissing in both sides of this bailout debate is the issue of America's foreign lenders, the group that will have to put up the bailout purse, the same folks who routinely pick up Washington's half-trillion dollar deficits for its foreign wars, tax cuts for the rich and so on.

Like it or not, America can't afford to let this crisis linger. These foreign lenders can't be allowed to see America as weak or indecisive, especially not in these conditions.

The Wall Street meltdown is proof enough of what happens when creditors get nervous. What if America's creditors get a case of the nerves? I expect they would still loan America the trillion dollars needed for the bailouts. What's unclear is what interest rates would be demanded and, worse yet, whether they'll be willing to make those loans in American dollars.

America's dependency on foreign lenders to prop up deficit spending limits America's options in tackling the credit crisis. It's curious that no one wants to talk about that right now.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future