Collapse of the American Empire: swift, silent, certain

Marketwatch ^ | March 9, 2010, 12:01 a.m. EST | Paul B. Farrell

[SmokingJoe]

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- "One of the disturbing facts of history is that so many civilizations collapse," warns anthropologist Jared Diamond in "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed." Many "civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society's demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak population, wealth and power."

Now, Harvard's Niall Ferguson, one of the world's leading financial historians, echoes Diamond's warning: "Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the precipice." Yes, America is on the edge.

Dismiss his warning at your peril. Everything you learned, everything you believe and everything driving our political leaders is based on a misleading, outdated theory of history. The American Empire is at the edge of a dangerous precipice, at risk of a sudden, rapid collapse.

Ferguson is brilliant, prolific and contrarian. His works include the recent "Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World;" "The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World;" "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of The American Empire;" and "The War of the World," a survey of the "savagery of the 20th century" where he highlights a profound "paradox that, though the 20th century was 'so bloody,' it was also 'a time of unparalleled progress.'"

Why? Throughout history imperial leaders inevitably emerge and drive their nations into wars for greater glory and "economic progress," while inevitably leading their nation into collapse. And that happens suddenly and swiftly, within "a decade or two."

[Lazamataz]

My thoughts are these: Never before in the history of mankind has a leader of a nation actively worked to destroy that nation. This is the situation we Americans are in. Obama is working constantly to find new and innovative ways to completely ruin us.

[Cvengr]

When I read about Obama considering to ban fishing, I recall he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia.

He must have been an incredible loser throughout his youth.

[who knows what evil?]

America’s last chance is to vote out the freeloaders and the socialists who champion them.

Vote them all out, and impose strict term limits on the new crop...period. Even the ballot box has failed.

[Son House]

94% GDP to debt ratio

^
http://www.heritage.org/research/taxes/bg2001.cfm
...but tax revenues are a function of two variables: tax rates and the tax base.

Regardless of the tax rate, tax revenues have almost always come in at approximately 18 percent of GDP.


Just the interest alone is going to be nearly impossible to pay at 18% of GDP, especially as the tax base shrinks, as Democrats intended with tax increases. Even McCain was smart enough not to raise anyone's taxes

[Texas Fossil]

I also think that we are heading towards CW2, but it will take a much different form than Part One did.

Yes, it is troubling. History does not repeat itself exactly. But the patterns of the division of the nation are strikingly similar. But remember that "Country Boys can Survive".

[Reeses]

The US is certainly not overextending itself militarily, despite what the Left might say. We are overextending ourselves with the social welfare state.

The current wealth of America originated from large investments in technology for WW II and the Cold War. A nation's wealth comes from military spending on technology. It's this simple: nations that gut their military spending for social welfare spending go bankrupt.

A mechanical effect of changing leaders often is institutions are pulled to the left. There's something to be said for a strong leader serving for life. The longest empires had stable leadership.

[Halgr]

To me the NWO is real and these last few years have served to confirm that America is doomed.

“They” are everywhere and “They” have been working for decades, perhaps longer to destroy the foundations of America.

But unfortunately the vast majority see my view as wacko and tinfoil.

Now I understand the biblical term “Mystery Babylon”.

[Laserman]

You hit the nail on the head. The USA is not over extended militarily. It is the demise of the populace brought on by dependency on government that is killing this country from within. As Jefferson said, a revolution is necessary every once in a while to cleanse the body politic and reset our values.

[rlmorel]

"...warns anthropologist Jared Diamond..."

The journalistic failboat, that is.

Any opinion or article that opens with a quote from Jared Diamond is a non-starter in the same way reading any opinion or article on history that opens with a quote from Howard Zinn is.

This is utter leftist BS. If America is going to collapse, it is because we have had and currently have too many people in power who think like Marx, Lenin, Castro, Chavez and Stalin (the heroes of people like Diamond) not because we engaged in warfare for sport because it is the type of thing "Imperial Powers" just love to do.

These are the same people who think we got rich by stealing from everyone else around the world, as if economic prowess is a zero sum game, that you can make money only by stealing the labor or resources from others. Let's see...who else thinks that way? Hmm. Eludes me...

These are the same people who refer to the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan as an "American Adventure".

My thoughts? An utter waste of bandwidth, doesn't even approach the value of the billions of spam emails sent each day on the Internet.

[ricks_place]

The America empire may well collapse leaving the world to burn. The left has continually burdened America with taxes and regulations designed to burden business and dull the intelligence of the populace. America has an Energy Department that seeks to increase energy cost and reduce energy use rather than increase energy production and reduce energy prices. Yes, collapse is possible.

[broken_arrow1]

Ping

[meyer]

Well given the size and the “location” of the USA it´s impossible to invade it.

Militarily, perhaps. But what we have now is not a military invasion - it's a political invasion. And right now, the commies are running Washington.

[familyop]

Ferguson’s a typical anti-American Brit, but so are most of our leaders in business, government and academia. An effort to bring down freight fuel prices and foreign product prices got out of hand more than a couple of years ago. The globalist scheme of debts for foreign products wasn’t meant to be sustainable. Now there are rumors circulating among favored constituents to the effect that the economy will be continued and managed on a much smaller scale to exclude a large part of the population.

Get ready.

[Leisler]

The Collapse Of Complex Societies.

[broken_arrow1]

Dig hole in sand — insert head — cover said hole.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

The largest migration in human history is happening NOW. And I think it will only increase. What you have is someone sitting in a shack somewhere looking at a television picture of a idealized place in Dallas. They want to come here. So they do, because we let them.

The Republicans want cheap labor. The Democrats think that they will vote for them.

Read Toynbee’s “ A Study of History”

[qwertypie]

Still remember my Dad bringing home an article for Newsweak entitled “the end of the American empire”,that the Japanese will buy off cities, make most of our cars, the Russians will raid the countryside...the year was around 1986. Just like every week for the past 20 years that North korea will invade Sokor, no matter the times, it’s the same ole headlines.

Apples to oranges, FRiend. The country's balance sheet has gotten progressively worse since then, in addition to dump truck loads of business-hostile regulations. Surely you must know some person who was high-flying 5, 10, or 20 years ago - able to juggle increasing amounts of spending and debt - and then just overextended. Well, that's the whole country now, and the borrowing and debt rate is overrunning the income rate.

Steps should be taken to counter the inevitable, for your personal financial situation. Not a bunker, but prudent action.

[RoadTest]

“outdated theory of history”

If you examine this phrase, you find a concept that history be constantly “updated” - for what? - to fit the political concept of the day?

History is history - the only updating it needs is to add today’s events to it, not change the view of the past!

[RoadTest]

“fiscal deficits and military overstretch”

Two more errors.

There woild be no fiscal deficits if the Liberal/Democrat/Socialists would get their greasy political mitts off our economy and let private enterprise start creating wealth again!

And we are not overstretched militarily. We have a Communist idiot in the White House lying through his teeth every day to decreasingly gullible citizens.
That’s where we’re “overstretched”.

[SamuraiScot]

It took a whole lot less than 50 percent—more like 30 percent, I believe—to build the nation to begin with

I'll point out that it's far easier to tear something down than to build something up.

True, and you might say that the situation on the ground in the colonies laid the groundwork for limited government: People were free, prosperous, religious, and hard-working. Some British soldiers derisively referred to our volunteers as "Yankee psalm-singers." (At the same time, the moral depravity of many of the New England volunteers scandalized Washington.)

In other words, it could be the Founders were the "early adopters" who could tell where all this was going—that America had its own way of doing things, and interference from England was only going to get worse. And most rank-in-file colonists hadn't realized it yet, but independence worked for them because it was right for them.

Whether the most powerful part of America is still that way is the question. Since the Tea Parties, it seems that it still is. But Oremus.