which things compound. the greeks have been there. spain is there now. japan could be next. the uk's teetering on the brink. and at some point i think in the next couple of years the reality will be that the paul krugman recipe ends up having costs that exceed the benefits. >> what else do you do? do you wait and hope? >> what's frustrating to me is the way the discussion is conducted it seems like there is only a keynesian option and the alternative is just sort of passively waiting for disaster. i think there is a better strategy that we could adopt. imagine radical fiscal reform that attacked not only the entitlements problem, that fundamental problem of medicare, social security that is going to bankrupt the country if something isn't done, and rationalize the tax code. simplified income tax, maybe even create just a simple flat tax rate. simplified and reduced corporate tax, created a federal sales tax. there is a way of creating a confidence-boosting fiscal reform. it's pretty radical. it has almost no congressional support. but it is an option that we should be discussing much more seriously.