Living Well Is the Best Revenge

I think that Ben Bernanke will have this old saw top of mind when he meets with other leading nation's central bankers, who according to Bloomberg are apparently intent on lecturing him about the US trade deficit. I suspect that Bernanke will be quite diplomatic, despite the article's assertion that BB will be less diplomatic. I don't expect BB to imply either 1) that Europe would give a major appendage for the US' economic performance, or 2) that Europe might oughta (a little phraseology from the beloved Mrs. Baseball's homeland) pipe down and focus on their little unemployment problem. I don't expect him to point out that the US has run a trade deficit for the better part of 200 years and that we've done alright by ourselves. I don't expect him to thoroughly discredit the theory of destructive trade deficits. Frankly, I expect him to simply blow off the criticism and relish the likelihood that the US will report supra 4% GDP growth for Q1.

ON A RELATED NOTE: Warren Buffett's bet against the dollar has been a $1 billion shellacking for Berkshire shareholders. Still, Buffett is wrong on his own dime. European politicos have no skin in the game and thus no incentive to get it right.