The economy is always a concern. But the economy will always reflect a considerable complex of factors, and will generally solve its own problems, if Governments and politicians can be kept out of its way.
I found the article here somewhat less than insightful. Certainly the writer makes some valid points, valid in the present context, at the present moment in time--part of that present complex, of course. But while he blithely skips over an acknowledgment of the importance of economic and cultural factors, he does not really look at how these factors develop--not even to the extent of spending any time at all, on such questions as to the flow of wealth with respect to Rome--to or from the Romans. He blithely ignores the Asian reality, at the time of Rome, with no understanding of the complex civilizations that existed at the same time in China & India, etc.. He fails to consider the ethnic factors in each of the great empires. And while he acknowledges our Republican institutions, he does not consider how such institutions fared with respect to Rome, or how changes in the constituency of those wielding power, effected the way that power was wielded, nor how wielding that power effected domestic society.
That the Rumsfeld Defence Department was able to function as well as it did in the recent Iraqi war, is certainly a cause for rejoicing. That does not mean that we should plan other such wars, without very careful thought as to their advisability both militarily and otherwise. That we can put together alliances, when we need them, is certainly an improvement over the entangling alliances that others have advocated; but it is not the same thing as our traditional Foreign Policy. We not only kept control of our own policy; we also showed respect for the differences between peoples. We asked only that we be treated with respect; that they leave us alone in our own ways, and deal with us fairly in all our international dealings, and we accorded them the same courtesies. It was that policy that gained us the respect of most of civilized humanity; and we are in grave danger of wasting that capital of good will.
I would suggest that Mr. Joffre look a little closer at Rome, when she was mostly Roman, Republican and free, in the early days of her Empire; and Rome when she became Cosmopolitan and Authoritarian. I am sure that he would not want to see an American Empire--even the invisible sort that he suggests--made possible at the expense of declaring a Hillary Clinton, "Goddess." But many of you will catch my drift.
The Britain of the Empire was a Britain sustained, of course, not by Authoritarianism, but by a British spirit, fuelled by a sense of ethnicity--and indeed a species of lovable arrogance. America, thanks to reckless immigration policies, no longer has such a sense of her unique ethnicity. We are not, even now--even without the further trend that Clinton envisioned--able to act with the sort of unity, necessary to long sustain the sort of intrusive policies that Joffre hints at. We could only do so by suppressing dissent, and going truly Roman; and in that process, we would kill that economic goose--if idiotic foreign aid programs, coupled with idiotic extensions of Medicare, etc., had not already done so.
Just some random thoughts.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site