Not in any balance sheet footnote that I've ever seen.

The U.S. supposedly “owes” China a trillion dollars or so, but China has likely taken at least that amount from the U.S. in intellectual property theft (industrial patents, computer software, and entertainment) as well as the sale of counterfeit brand name goods.

The same unregistered reciprocity exists with the couple of trillion or so the U.S. owes India and Saudi Arabia. India has benefited massively from the public U.S. university system and the private offshoring of technology jobs, and Saudi Arabia has been able to hold a stable grip on its repressive power largely with the implicit backing of U.S. foreign policy and military.

I'm hard pressed to think of U.S. political leaders who act like they think the United States even has national interests. Donald Trump sure knew what a foreigner-administered screw job looks like but since 2001 we've had a president who kisses Saudi princes on the lips and holds hands with them and another president who bows and scrapes to Tokyo doormen and some kind of a sheik wearing a dress.

China hasn't just welcomed U.S. manufacturing to its shores but demanded that tour companies hollow themselves out as a condition of doing business there by transferring the company crown jewels to Chinese competitors. Not to mention the massive Chinese espionage effort mounted against us inside our borders.

And while we're taking a fresh look at things, let's ask why it was that we ended up moving so much precious manufacturing capacity and intellectual property to China – a murderous, corrupt communist dictatorship that is a dangerous strategic competitor of ours -- instead of to a friendly democracy like INDIA.

Why did we end up handing the gold to an enemy? With all that China does to maintain Iran and N. Korea, is there anyone who seriously thinks that China is friendly to us?

"Unleashing the Future: Advancing Prosperity Through Debt Forgiveness (Part 5)." By Zeus Yiamouyiannis, Of Two Minds.com, 12/2/11.

Mr. Y gets a bit dreamy and fluffy there when he thinks of how life can be if we abandon the present absurd path. People "being able to new opportunities and definitions of the good life involving working together creatively to build a better, more just world" and any mention of the word "reinvent" are clues that the person in question is in danger of floating off the surface of the planet.

His view on the nature of the present problems are well worth reading, however.