We have very little time this morning; we're driving up to Normandy to check on that money pit...er...chateau we bought. We're going to have to let others do much of the worrying this morning. And there seem to be enough experts around doing just that.

Richard Berner, for instance, worries about the rate of consumption.

"Consumers went on a spending spree over the past three months, " he notes and adds, "I estimate that real outlays jumped at close to a 10% annual rate in the November-January span, the fastest 3-month clip since the spring of 1987. That surge occurred despite rising debt and interest rates, a negative saving rate, and apparently slowing home price gains. It's hardly an understatement to say that the pace is unsustainable."

Among consumers in America though, it looks like "what me worry" is still the prevailing mood.

Colleague Lila Rajiva offers a quote from Bishop Berkeley to explain this insouciance about the reckless spending: "Things are as they are, and their consequences will be what they will be. Why then should we seek to be deceived?"

Why indeed? That's the rub. How about: because we love deception. Or, how
about: because it is so much more fun than the truth. You see, we are a nation of romantics, of dreamers and of wishful thinkers. We read only the upbeat part of company reports - not the footnotes, the small print, or the legal disclaimer at the bottom. We like to see our women by candlelight or under pink shades, not in the hard light of the midday sun. And we imagine that we can bring liberty, freedom and ATM machines to desert tribes in Mesopotamia.

How could anyone help loving such trusting rubes? Americans have nary a trace of Gallic cynicism, the knowing superiority of the British or even the world-weariness of the Germans. It is not even as if they were born yesterday; it is as if they hadn't been born at all.

In the American view, progress is unstoppable, inevitable, irreversible and always benign. Creative destruction happens - they say so all the time. But hardly a single one of them imagines that it is their own economy that is being destroyed.

Right now, Americans look upon globalization as if it were a government policy - like rural electrification. Surely, it brings them only good things, they believe; otherwise, the government wouldn't allow it. And they are sure they know what it brings. After all, don't they see all those goodies on the shelves of Wal-Mart? Who would imagine that the importation of cheap goods from poor Third World countries would undermine the most successful economy in history?

Bill Bonner, back in France more views...

*** And continuing the discussion that we began yesterday about the port deal, Chris Mayer had this to say:

"America's trade deficit hit an all-time high for 2005, and the country is not in the position to start dictating where foreigners can invest," says he. "The only way the United States is able to sustain such a deficit is by getting money from abroad, by attracting investment dollars."

"It is short-sighted protectionist measures - like the ones being pursued by the members of Congress - that helped precipitate the Great Depression," says Mayer. "The more difficult politicians make it to do business in the United States, the more they risk triggering global depression and economic stagnation."

The protectionists measures mean that dollar assets are not going to be as attractive to investors abroad - and that means bad things for the US dollar and the health of the economy.

"For those who say they don't want a foreign government running our ports; well, here's an interesting fact," continued Mayer. "China already runs a terminal at the Port of Los Angeles. Singapore runs terminals in Oakland. The fact is, around the world this is commonplace. If the U.S. government is going to exclude foreign companies (even government-owned
ones) from running its ports, it will only slip back further in the global competitive race, isolating it from the biggest and most efficient port operators in the world."

Among emerging markets, the UAB - of which Dubai is a part - was the second largest purchaser of US companies last year, with over $1 billion dollars invested. That's a small fraction of the Middle East's buying power. Currently, the Middle East holds over $120 billion in US securities, excluding trillions of dollars held by foreigners in other parts of the world.

"America can either encourage the open markets it so often trumpets," says Mayer, "or it can retreat into the ugly cocoon of protectionism - with racist overtones to boot."

*** As we explained yesterday, we are no longer thinking after lunch. If we're going to have any thoughts, they will have to show up before 1:00 p.m. That is all there is to it.

That doesn't mean our brain goes completely dark after we have our soup. It just means that it switches to another mode of activity. In fact, that is probably what most people do most of the time. Gone out of our heads is any thought about the Five Big Es, the deficits, the way markets work, the past tense subjunctive form of Spanish verbs or any of the other weighty subjects that have been making us toss and turn. Instead, we put on our work clothes, pick up our trowel and go outside for a delightful afternoon of miserable manual labor.

We say "miserable" because that is how Edward and Henry see it...and how it must look to the passersby. The temperature is barely above freezing. And it is raining most of the time, which means that the work area has turned into a mud puddle worthy of a Verdun trench in 1916.

Everything is wet.

And everything hurts.

Our back hurts when we pick up rocks...so we kneel on the ground. And then, our knees hurt. Our arms and shoulders hurt from lifting the heavy rocks, and also from pushing the wheelbarrow, full of "mud," through the mud. But most of all, it is our hands that hurt. They are not used to such rough work. The lime and water burn them and then the sharp stones cut them. They get banged up on stones and tools. By the end of the day, they are so tender we can barely wash them.

But it is amazing how this kind of work focuses the mind. When we are laying up stone, our entire attention is concentrated on the stones, the "mud," and the wall taking shape before us. Each stone requires a kind of structural analysis: does it have a face that can be left exposed? Is it humped to the left or to the right? Is it slopped towards the inside or the outside? Is it rectangular or triangular? Where have we seen a hole that it might fit?

Socrates was a stonemason. It must have sharpened his wits to a knifepoint.

Next to laying stone, much of the work people do is a waste of time. Imagine the poor imbeciles patting down grandmothers at airports. That must be miserable work. On our last trip to the United States, one of these homeland security jacks-in-office confiscated Henry's nail clippers. He must have known that the clippers posed a danger only to cuticles. But rules are rules, and there is never any shortage of people willing to do blockhead work for minimum wage. Still, even blockheads must know perfectly well that their work is worthless. Even jacks-in-office must at least suspect sometimes that grandmothers and nail clippers are harmless.

Or think about all the millions of people who work for government. The Feds have hundreds or thousands of agencies, departments and forgotten sinecures. Last time we checked, there was even a "Screw Thread" commission, devoted to making sure nuts and bolts go together as they should. Most of the people who work in these jobs must realize that their work is not only worthless, but also counterproductive. Still, they go through the motions. They show up on time. They try to do a good job. They deceive themselves that their work means something. But even in air-conditioned offices - with no lime on your hands - such work must be painful to the spirit.

What is surprising is that so many people put up with it without murdering their bosses or co-workers.

At least, putting up stonewalls - however hard it may be on the body - does no damage to your soul.

Bill Bonner is the President of Agora Publishing.  For more on Bill Bonner, visit The Daily Reckoning.