What I had wanted to emphasize from both the quote and the interview, though, was the degree to which we can be far more rational about economics simply by acknowledging the realities of basic accounting: surpluses somewhere must equal deficits elsewhere.

Reminds me of: http://xkcd.com/793/

In general it's not very rational to take a look at a complex field and simply posit that if they would follow some simple rules that you consider reasonable they would just do better.