America's profligacy is now taken so much for granted that an enormous increase in its current-account deficit no longer makes front-page news. In the fourth quarter the deficit jumped to a record $225 billion, or 7% of GDP, lifting the deficit for 2005 as a whole to $805 billion. It has become fashionable in America to argue that the deficit does not matter-in particular, that it will not drive the dollar down. But fashions can quickly change.
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