Currently I am rereading Emmanuel Todd’s After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order. Written in 2001, Todd’s argument predicting the downfall of the U.S. empire is mostly an economic/industrial one. I am not sure yet if he is right or not. The U.S. has a remarkable ability to rebound.
But in the context of rereading the book I collected a few recent links I want to share.
Treasuries Riskier Than Bunds, Default Swaps Show
The risk of losses on U.S. Treasury notes exceeded German bunds for the first time ever amid investor concern the subprime mortgage crisis is sapping government reserves, credit-default swaps prices show.
US economy loses its No 1 spot
The US economy lost the title of "world’s biggest" to the euro zone this week as the value of the US dollar slumped in currency markets.
Taking the gross domestic product of both economies in 2007, the combined GDP of the 15 countries which use the euro overtook that of the US when the European currency surged to a record high of more than $1.56 per euro overnight.
NASA Wary of Relying on Russia – Moscow Soon to Be Lone Carrier of Astronauts to Space Station
In 2 1/2 years, just as the [international space] station gets fully assembled, the United States will no longer have any spacecraft of its own capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the station, in which roughly $100 billion is being invested. The three space shuttles will be retired by then, because of their high cost and questionable safety, and NASA will have nothing ready to replace them until 2015 at the earliest.
For five years or more, the United States will be dependent on the technology of others to reach the station, which American taxpayers largely paid for. To complicate things further, the only nation now capable of flying humans to the station is Russia, giving it a strong bargaining position to decide what it wants to charge for the flights at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are becoming increasingly testy.
The reports of the death of the U.S. empire may be exaggerated. But the evidence of some serious illness is piling up.
