First and foremost, America s government and consumers have been engaged in a never ending consumption binge.

To Pope Benedict, as well as other conservatives, the social and sexual revolutions of the mid 20th century may look like an orgy of libertinism.

In that moment, our scholarship can tell you that this is a bacchanal, but if we're doing our job right, and you've checked the jargon at the front door, trust your instinct.

That s right with the American consumer on ice in the aftermath of the biggest consumption binge in history, the US economy has drawn its sustenance disproportionately from foreign markets.

Instead of feeling the pinch of wartime privations, like in any ordinary country, American consumers are binging as if it were Christmas all year round.