With the election now over, the most essential question facing the U.S. and global economy is what will be the fiscal and financial policies of the Bush II administration? The simple answer is that no one has a clue, not even the economists close to the admnistration as reported by the FT yesterday. The President has spoken of tax reform and partial social security privatization but the most crucial issue ahead will be how to fix the fiscal deficit mess of the last four years and how to reduce the unsustainable current account deficit. On those basic issues, the stated objectives of the administration imply twin - fiscal and external debt - financial train wrecks down the line: serious financial distress from unsustainable fiscal and current account deficits cannot be ruled out at this point. Clearly, reducing the budget deficit will not be a priority of Bush II.