Rusty superpower in need of careful driver

[Zorro]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5435148.ece


Rusty superpower in need of careful driver

Obama built his campaign on a positive vision, but in reality he will be the first US President to manage an empire in decline

...But maybe destiny has other plans. America's fate in the half-century ahead is not to be transfigured, but to be relegated. Steering your team through a relegation can be as important a test of leadership as handling a promotion, but it is a different test. Though he may not yet know it, the role for which the US President-elect has been chosen is the management of national decline. He will be the first US president in history to accept, and (if he has the gift) to teach, not the possibilities but the constraints of power.


We're done...

[DonInNC]

The challenge is to find a foundation for our economy. The growth of the late 90's was due to the tech bubble, much of which was exagerated. The most recent growth was due to imaginary growth in real estate, and the current answer is for the government to pump more imaginary money into the economy. This service industry based economy has no foundation. We need to get back to real innovation and manufacturing. If it means paying a little more for goods and services, oh well.

[ope]

Fortune Magazine ran an interesting article on topic of our governmental spending not being "too much" but rather being "too wrong" in October. Link here. (http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/13/news/economy/sachs_opinion.fortune/index.htm)

Essentially as a nation we aren't investing in the right things (infrastructure, education) and we are investing in the wrong things (military, debt spending, entitlements). Its an interesting perspectives and a conversation that our nation needs to seriously have.

[zildjian361]

heavy stuff.

[moochcassidy]

i too hope this is reversable trend and not the turning point..not as confident as those commenters tho.

[Syd]

America isn't in decline, the rest of the world is catching up. If you want to read an incredibly insightful book, check out the Post American World by Fareed Zakaria. Really, really good read.

[Snoogans]

this is goin just like V for Vendetta movie. America is falling, soon Britain will be run by Norsefire

[pennington]

Europeans have been saying (hoping) the U.S. is in decline since the 70's. In the 80's, 90's and 00's I've heard the same things from Europeans that I've dealt with in business (BTW, I've never met a European, unless they've lived here for a few years, that has a clue how things work here).

Nothing's certain, let's see how this economic downturn works itself out.

[sr71blackbird]

The challenge is to find a foundation for our economy. The growth of the late 90's was due to the tech bubble, much of which was exagerated. The most recent growth was due to imaginary growth in real estate, and the current answer is for the government to pump more imaginary money into the economy. This service industry based economy has no foundation. We need to get back to real innovation and manufacturing. If it means paying a little more for goods and services, oh well.

AMEN! When we gave all our manufacturing jobs away, we also give up our innovation. There is also a large percentage of people that we had/have that are good at hands on stuff and not really "book smart" and those people are the actual backbone of the country, despite what some people think. I do not know what we can do to get the manufacturing back, and I doubt the other countries will give it up.

[Zorro]

It's fun living here in the newest Banana Republic