Oh teh noes!!!!111!!one!!11eleventeen­!!!1!!

"America's aviation system is now the butt of jokes because 9-year-olds have become accustomed to removing their Heelys before boarding a plane."

WTF does our airport security procedures have to do with aviation system? Seriously, WHAT? In fact, the entire article said little if anything at all about how American management failed, other than the typical liberla mantra "Oh GEE WE SUCK" Guess what, liberal, the metric-football playing Euros are losing their money hand over fist because they too invested heavily in the subprime vehicles, and their economy will tank just as well, and they too will have to lower their interest rate to prevent a melt down, driving their precious Euro down. Their own banks are rife with their own huge derivative trade losses and incompetent managements. How do you say schadenfreude in German? Oh gee you sooooo clever. How can anyone be so clever in one lifetime I can never know.

And when a Mexican airliner flew into whatever building that is worth blowing up, I will ask "How do you say schadenfreude in Spanish?"

You have a good point about that. I thought that was a stretch to link it to poor management practices or shortsightedness. However, the credit crisis is a very good example of what he's talking about. Giving out loans with high interest to people who can't really afford the terms and steering people with good credit to these loans for supposedly high risk only applicants. Then bundling all these loans together, not bothering to adequately assess risk inherent in these portfolios, and selling them to investors. Basically, selling mortgages on people who can't afford the loan terms. Even with home prices rising like they did, it is hard to understand how they thought they could keep this going. I suspect that if they ran into hot water, the feds would bail them out. Notice who the feds are worried most about, the banks and mortgages houses that caused this mess, not the people who got screwed over.

It wasn't a great rhetorical point. What I took it to mean was that we spend a lot of effort and cost on low return activities in the name of security. Activities that put a drag on our economy by keeping people from traveling or coming to our country. That the gain in security by these activities like universal shoe removal is primarily in making nervous grandma's feel like something is being done, while any good terrorist who was serious about doing us harm would use a different approach than fireworks in a shoe. Lastly, that there a notable numbers of people in other countries that see our over-reaction to our "security" insecurities as amusing.

As an American, I wouldn't call this self loathing, the comment was more self observation. Contrast this to the self-denial that has led us into the debt market mess. It's a moral choice.

Javak,

I think you miss the point my friend.

For example

We have a system that tortures and refuses today what methods are used as to not give the enemy the ability to train in counter measures. But then the media quotes a general saying that missle defense will not protect us again a sophisticated attack but since Iran and North Korea are second rate we don't have to worry. I guess this does not allow our enemies to adjust for our weekness. I call this incompetent and out of touch, since Al Qadia is the present danger and Pakistan is the source of the nuclear material adn it will not be fired but rather smuggled across the border for use in a dirty bomb. So we spend bilions for a system so it can protect Israel - but I digress....

Now about airports.

We spend billions so people can take off their shoes but only about 10% at most of the cargo traveling on the same plane is screened. Most of the bombing of airliners occured not by suicide bombers but by normal bombs in cargo holds, That my frield is not liberal "blame America first" but a good question on return on investment of my tax dollars,

We have a strange need to have the appearence of safey not the actual thing.

The true source of this incompetence is the voter, us, we the people. We put this process in place though our elected leaders and we keep rewarding them them reelection all the while complaining.

If you, or Gross, have problem with the war in Iraq, or the TSA, or whatever bellyache du jour you have, please say so. Gross said nothing about how the management of American businesses failed other than "everybody is laughing at us" and "I use the word 'schadenfreude' because I went to college". It would have been an easy article to write, if already well-covered everywhere else, but Gross took the cheap shot way instead.

"The true source of this incompetence is the voter"? Really? I don't remember voting for CEOs of Bear Stearns or CitiGroup, do you?