The steep drop in stocks since passage of the ill-fated debt deal indicates that even markets understand the disastrous consequences of what has just occurred.

The high stakes debt ceiling negotiations have had Americans and the rest of the world on the edge of their seats. While most of the media elite has focused on whether our political leaders can achieve a bipartisan deal on the debt, the rest of the world has taken note of how dysfunctional our democratic institutions have become.

The national mood is sour and it is not because Americans think that Social Security is driving the country into bankruptcy -- as many fiscal hawks in Congress and their parrots in the media would have you believe.