Congressman Paul Ryan, Chair of the House Budget Committee, has become the GOP’s go-to guy for everything economical, and there are two reasons why: first, he is courageous enough to jump into the water and get the pool party started. As with his Path to Prosperity, his budget, and his plan for Medicare, Mr. Ryan is clear that Americans need to talk about big changes in the amount of money we spend and ways we can grow our economy, increase productivity, and, of course, employment- none of which have been even remotely addressed by the current administration. His willingness to get out on the road and talk to Americans about his ideas, have conversations with them, and take on the darts and arrows demonstrates a strength of character that the president and his party might only dream of possessing.

Second, Congressman Ryan’s brilliant ability to explain aspects of the budget and economic data to Americans who may not be economists and budget analysts is on display in his new video, in which he describes the three necessary features of a new tax code: fairness, competitiveness, and simplicity.

Mr. Ryan told Tina Korbe of Hot Air, “If you tax something more, you get less of it. If you tax something less, you get more of it. If you tax work, savings, investment more, you’re going to get less of those things. If you lower tax rates across the board, we always see stronger economic growth result across the board.”

How simple is that? No jobs saved and created here. No double-counting Medicare in Obamacare. No tax increases to pay for investment, i.e., spending, in infrastructure.

In the same interview, the chairman made an important distinction between being “pro-market,” versus “pro-business.” He explained that Republicans need to be advocates for the former, a term which invokes the concepts of entrepreneurism, American creativity, and competitiveness in world markets.

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The world seems to be coming apart at its seams. We are facing real threats that resemble the great plagues of the past. This plague is targeting the foundations of society as opposed to the people who make it. Great Britain is being throttled by rioters as London has become a city of chaos. We are witnessing a global meltdown in the financial markets and the only thing that looks to be clear at this point is that a new world order will emerge once the old one gives up the ghost.

Countries such as Russia and China are clamoring for the US dollar dominated-era to end. The latter of the two is in a good position to take advantage of US vulnerabilities. Back in 2009, there was a concerted effort by rich nations such as France, China, Russia, and Japan to move away from dealing in dollars for the price of oil. It was really just pecking blows from lightweights – considering US economic hegemony – as opposed to a knockout blow. However, in my limited powers of observation, the US’ legs are as wobbly as anytime before. The momentum, if you want to call it that, does seem to be moving away from the US in light of our economic and financial woes toward a yet to be announced global realignment.

It is easy to be fatalistic when faced with so many uncertainties. The US is losing credibility along with its place in the world as the sole superpower. Consider the fact that we aren’t being removed from that lofty pedestal from the machinations of another, but, rather, our fall is by our own doing; and it becomes even more depressing.

Our government has spent every cent it has taken in and then borrowed an additional $14 trillion. Take a minute for that to seep in. Our politicians promised and voted in programs it could not afford. Voting constituencies lapped it up. Our national debt became excessive and is now a catastrophic danger. Our government ignored proper funding for the interest on the debt. Instead we borrowed more against our debt. The result, obviously, was that creditors lost confidence in their investments and government securities were hardly secure. The party is ending but it goes much deeper than that.

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News from Dubai is rocking and rolling world markets today, as an $80 billion default could spawn a broad wave of activity and expose the tenuous status of the banking system. We’re talking global markets on the Black Friday edition of Coffee and Markets, a daily podcast from The New Ledger on politics, policy and the marketplace with Francis Cianfrocca, brought to you by BigGovernment.com.

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Related Links:

FT: Global Markets on Selling Spree Thanks to Dubai Default
Bloomberg: RBS Led Dubai World Lenders, HSBC May Have Most at Stake in UAE
Business Insider: Stop Freaking Out, the UAE Can Easily Save Dubai