I brought a stack of post-election papers to read on the plane. Some highlights:

The New Republic, 29 November:

…the neoconservatives and their fellow traveler liberal hawks have yet to come clean with the American people about the potential costs of democratizing and liberalizing the Arab world — in lives, dollars, civil liberties, and cultural freedoms. They have yet to come clean about the likelihood of a general draft and the possibility that many thousands of young men and women in Generation Y will die for the baby-boomers’ crusade. They have yet to come clean with the already struggling, indebted Generation X, which will see its taxes rise to pay for the multitrillion-dollar cost of the wars (on top of the already $50 trillion-plus shortfall for boomer entitlements). They have yet to come clean with all generations of Americans about the inevitability of further erosions of our civil liberties and freedoms of expression. And they have yet to come clean about the full costs of a U.S. empire. Kenneth Hempel, Nevada City, Calif.; letter

The Financial Times, 5 November:

“If I had one wish for US policy in the next four years it would be a steep rise in taxes on petrol. It would promote cleaner air, reduce global warming, help cut the budget deficit and diminish political dependence on the Middle East. Any one of these benefits would be sufficient to justify a big increase in petrol prices. Taken together the case is overwhelming. A prescription of required treatment is helpful even when early implentation is unlikely.” Samuel Brittan, commentary

Nice to know that someone else besides the now-sacked Greg Mankiw is willing to go on the record for the most obvious policy panacea of our time. (Update 5 Dec: or, as Friedman quotes Michael Mandelbaum from Hopkins on energy independence: “This is not just a win-win. This is a win-win-win-win-win.”)

The US now needs $2.5bn of capital inflows daily to fund its domestic savings shortfall. I would hope our international bankers did not expect us to pay this back without letting the dollar go lower against other currencies. The only decisive result in the Bush victory is the absolute certainty that the president will not admit the economic imbalances our country faces. Paul Corrigan, letter

So, we Americans are outliving our means to the tune of almost $9 per person per day. Charming.

As the extent of Republican victory sinks in, corporate America is realising that it has not only escaped a series of Democrat threats to its freedom but that it enjoys the prospect of driving through reforms it could only dream of in George W. Bush’s first term.
Quite apart from the short-term correction in share prices that caught attention on Wednesday, an air of euphoria has begun to creep into boardrooms and Washington’s lobby offices, tempered only by the recognition that there is a lot to cram in…
Thomas Reynolds, who chaired the Republican congressional campaign committee, was asked on Wednesday whether the Republican party needed to be careful not to overplay its hand. “No, I think there’s green lights in America,” he said…
But with the re-election of Mr Bush and the Republicans’ increased control over Congress after Tuesday’s elections, both business lobbyists and their opponents say the next four years could tilt the political landscape in favour of corporate America more dramatically than at any period in modern US history.
Industries as diverse as manufacturing, financial services, energy, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals are hoping to see the passage of measures that have repeatedly been blocked by the Democrats, particularly in the Senate.
“This is about as good as it might ever get for any of these industries,” says Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity… “This is really nirvana for these folks…”
“Business has invested a lot of money in the Republicans, and really wants the payback,” says [Joan] Claybrook, [president of Public Citizen].Dan Roberts & Edward Alden, “Foot to the pedal: US business expects a clear run from a second Bush term”

Given all this, it’s no wonder at least one columnist mentioned the serious potential of a human capital drain from the US. Some are already betting on it.