America's downgrade may serve as a wakeup call for its policymakers. It is an unambiguous and loud signal of the country's eroding economic strength and global standing. It renders urgent the need to regain the initiative through better economic policymaking and more coherent governance.
From this process has emerged a parallel process of translating traditional working and living values into a new political and economic power – a power increasingly based upon the strength of money and those material things money can purchase.
