The End of an Empire caused by Spiral of Ignorance.

"Look forward to see how a possible next will look alike!"

no, my guess is that you will look back with longing for what was.

a thousand years of cultural darkness, and/or the prospect of another islamic tyranny.....not much to look forward to.

all the gung-ho social/enviro movements will be naught but bittersweet cultural memories.

the sneering, posturing attitude towards the american dream will be replaced by the new, hard realities of servitude.

Enjoy!

Hugh Askew wrote: "Look forward to see how a possible next will look alike!" Here is the first step in this process:

Today the FED started with QE that certainly shall speed up the show of the decline.

Quantitative Easing (QE) I wrote about this in one of my recent articles. Will cause the decline in the dollar and its value as reserve currency, thus the beginning of the end for a complete downfall of the Empire.

For better understanding QE means that the Central bank (FED) expands money supply by using newly created money instead of printing it, in buying toxic assets from banks and other financial institutions. The aim is to boost the economy by giving sellers of these toxic assets money to spend on goods, services or ‘better’ assets.

The Ham question now: Why this new spending spree at all? The answer may be that the Fed and policymakers are concerned that the previous floods of money to improve credit conditions not were sufficient to get consumers back to their shopping habit, shop till you drop!

However you cannot drain a country from too much water by adding more of the same!

Shopping sprees won’t happen. QE is just another nail in the coffin of the economy it speeds up the downfall of the dollar as reserve currency. As soon more people in authority start to understand what is happening a huge political shift toward something else will commence.

I remind the reader we are not in a recession but depression so the medicine prescribed by the FED kills the patient, in this case avoiding the economic recovery!

Nothing else for us boondoggles as Wait and See, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

 "...another Empire has come to its end. Look forward to see how a possible next will look alike! "

It would be my hope that there is no replacement for the Roman or American Empire. Humanity has learned a lot over the years and globalization has run its course. If another Empire comes about it will have to be based on a different "ization" or "ism", but I hope for "individualism" to win the day and for people to see their own worth and not give that power away lightly to governments and corporations to run roughshod over individual rights and concerns.

Yes tireed your comments are very contributive. If people start to act and think to be (more) involved with their individual responsibility with a flavour of some individualism and proud by not looking for hands-out but to perform in their own and their community's interest, then  the world will become a much better place to live. All that socialism has made the individual lazy and let them expecting that others are responsible for their well-being instead of doing it themselves.

PIM, I have to echo Hugh Askew's closing remark and say you do seem a bit happy, maybe with a little bit of crocodile tears, to see the demise of what many felt was the beacon of freedom and opportunity. However that still comes with the respect that you do seem to know what you're talking about, and make several rarely expressed but accurate points.

However, except for the obvious fact that everyone wanted the pay and benefits of the auto workers, but there wasn't enough to go around, Americans did nor make a conscious effort to put Asia to work while we sat and sunned ourselves all day. I get atacked in the most hostile way when I mention this to his adoring fans, and it's hardly partisanship as I voted for Clinton in '92 and Obama in '08, but his corruption influenced policies were clearly the nail in the coffin for US manufacturing and led us into the pit we're in today.  From NAFTA to Chinagate to Ron Brown's trade junkets, to even fighting for their civil rights as he built their industry, he spent 8 years altering policies that allowed 100 years of American manufacturing ingenuity be dropped in their laps for the peanuts of some campaign contributions. By now US patents are worthless, copyright protections meaningless, product licensing something only Americans pay American companies for, the rest of the world doesn't have to.

Clinton's supporters would like to forget the Cox report, and ignore the campaign finance scandal of 1996, and insist all presidents fostered relations with China and took questionable campaign contributions.None of the examples they will point to were a President illegally accepting large sums of money from a foreign nation's officials and altering policies for their benefit with congress censuring those actions.

It became all that much worse after he left because Wall St. feeds upon America, and when they had no American factories to pour money into in the hopes of a healthy return, they created an industry to invest in-junk mortgages, and it was not self sustaining, neither was the consumer economy which saw a Walmart open across the street from a shuttered factory in towns across America.

Accuse me of partisanship they will and point at a balanced (projected) budget in 2000. I would offer that was the result of the plundering of America's assets by the stockholders of the companies that sent production overseas. It may be anectdotal but it's tangible and beyond denial: In 1992, every single consumer good sold in this country of any consequence, no matter where it was manufactured, had molded or labelled on the bottom, "US Patent # _,___,___,___".  By soon after 2001, Every product still had a label. Made in China.

(I might add I believe we went into Iraq primarily to stop Saddam's scheme of actively undermining the dollar and was setting up a landslide selloff to take place when Blix found him in compliance by summertime. Saddam already had a pipeline of oil for capital and goods established throughout Europe because of oil for food, and Iran and Venezuela were on board to change to oil sales in Euros. With the euro gaining on the dollar and the US seizing assets of Muslim countries for supporting terrorism, there was no love for the dollar and Saddam's terrorist bounties fanned the flames with every explosion. It's not that Bush thought Saddam had WMD, it's that we knew Saddam gamed the UN and would get off sanctions and would  have tons of cash, his weapons suppliers in country pumping oil like mad,  and the Arab world united against us.  Don't act surprised, the economy as a weapon was how we buried the USSR. ) The dollar fell somewhat anyway, but not by runaway selloff.

So th depression is on and they know it. They are ready for the chaos. Look up "organized stalking".

First I apologize for not participating in this discussion being the initiator of the subject, due the fact that I was traveling throughout Europe during the course of the last 2 weeks.

Further you both are American and I'm European, more specifically Dutch. This may make the difference of approach. Although I have been a fervent supporter of the USA and a frequent business traveler in the US, this may have offered me a better understanding as impartial observer. I can follow batvette's arguments and for the majority agree with, like the US-patent situation etc, but also agree with tlreed that the subject should be interpreted   from a more neutral point of view. Probably by living outside the USA we do have acquired a more neutral and nuanced opinion. Anyhow it is interesting reading and I thank both batvette and tleerd for their contributions to this discussion.

this may have offered me a better understanding as impartial observer.

That can't be denied, and from that perspective I imagine the sentiment in Europe is it's all coming back to bite us afrter Kissinger made the deal with the Saudis in 1973 (that secured the "petrodollars" monetary scheme) despite our promise to the G7 we would not do so behind their back.

A plan that allowed America to print money as fast as developing nations could consume petroleum and trade us real goods and services for. What the hell could go wrong with that?  :-) (in retrospect anyone would have done the same, and so would we again, though I think we could have better prepared for the consequences)

It does also put in perspective our precarious situation involving ourselves in middle east conflicts. On one hand we owe the Saudi Royal family almost all the credit for American prosperity in the 35 years since, while we are ideological brothers in many ways and staunch allies with their enemies, the Israelis.