The Comeback Country How America pulled itself back from the brink—and why it's destined to stay on

[EV_Ares]

top.

In the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown and the deep, long recession that followed, the decline of America has become the preferred intellectual preoccupation of the elite—left, right, and center. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-winning economist, has argued that the Obama administration's tepid response to the recession and the financial meltdown will sandbag the U.S. recovery. Historian Niall Ferguson has made the case that high debt and profligate spending will cause the downfall of a once mighty empire. Harvard economist Ken Rogoff frets that the U.S. could become the next Greece. In January, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, once dubbed l'Americain, delivered a blistering speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos that criticized the U.S.-led model of global capitalism.

After the failure of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, industries and institutions tethered to the easy-money era were nearly sliced in half. And so was America's economic self-esteem. Between the end of 2007 and the first quarter of 2009, $9 trillion of wealth evaporated. The relentless boom of China, India, and Brazil, with their cheap labor and abundant natural resources, emerged as a frightening new threat. The collapse coincided with other foreboding omens: $4-a-gallon gas, the rise of the tea partiers, an ungovernable Senate, an oddly blasé White House, unrepentant banks, and stubbornly high unemployment. The broad measure that tallies frustrated part-timers and those who have given up remains at 16.9 percent. If the U.S. doesn't tumble back into recession, the consensus holds, we'll face a Japan-style lost decade. A 2009 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 27 percent were confident their children's standard of living would be better than their own.

Link to entire Newsweek article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/236190

[peacebird]

1. I think we are more likely seeing the end of an empire than the empire rising like a phoenix

from its own ashes, though I would love to be wrong in this instance....

[qazplm]

4. I think too many folks

are way too quickly writing our obituary.

Too many reasons why we will remain at or near the top for a long time.

Diverse population, strong military, large population, large amount of natural resources, abundant farming, well developed advanced education system, etc. etc.

Do we have issues? Sure, so does everyone else. Will we always be "Number 1" whatever that means? Of course not. But the idea that we are about to fall apart I think is plain wrong...and I have no idea why it is so prevalent on places like here and Kos. I can only guess it is a reaction to the ridiculous "American exceptionalism" practiced by those on the right. Which is understandable to a degree but is sometimes taken too far.

[JCMach1]

7. +1, the demise of the American Empire is greatly exaggerated

Un/underemployment has little to do with the continuation of empire. Take a look at this snapshot of 19th century London:

...London workers: 1) an elite of well-paid and privileged craftemen; 2) millions of unskilled laboring poor; they worked in the docks, as builders, as scavengers, chimney sweeps, wood choppers, rag collectors, messengers, coachmen, women in the garment industry (especially after the introduction of the sewing machine. Much of this work was seasonal, and occasional unemployment was a fact of life; hence genuine fear of the masses of the unskilled; 3) lower-middle class, or "white collar" work: this was the fastest growing part of London's population; thousands of clerks worked in the banking, insurance, and brokerage industries, most of them men until the invention of the telephone and the typewriter; elementary school teachers needed after the creation of a state-supported primary education system in the 1870s; their status was lower than that of the "public school" teachers; 4) the "higher" or "liberal" professions of law, medicine, and the Church, and all three had London ties. Legal education and the practice of law had its center in London. Also in London were the main teaching hospitals, and there was a wealthy population in need of physicians. The Church of England had a large presence in London, and all bishops and archbishops sat in the House of Lords. Also there were opportunities for previously inferior groups like solicitors and surgeons to rise in prestige. Also a large number of domestic servants... http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/london_19c.html

America, if anything, is still in its adolescence of empire... we still have the growing pains...

[EFerrari]

2. What in the world is Jon Meacham thinking.

Yeah, we bring new ideas -- to China and to Indonesia and to Honduras. I feel like bookmarking this as The Official Story.

No disrespect meant to the Op.

[KG]

3. that article is a steaming pile of poo. jobs are only mentioned as an after thought.

so the investor class is doing well. woop-dee-dam-doo.

[Newest Reality]

5. In all the contemplations of the

collapse or resurgence of the empire, the key point is to whom the "we" applies.

There are, symbolically, two worlds that are being superimposed and confused during this systemic collapse. The collective "we" is a generalized abstraction and, too often, people seem to identify with it automatically when seeing it. There is far too much diversity for any accurate use of we, so it is a mere convenience.

In this case, the "we" that is experiencing a recovery of any sorts are those who function in areas of the culture that have access to, or ownership of, certain flows of wealth or governmental intervention where the collective "we's" taxes and resources are made available.

On the other hand, there is the "we" as in the masses who own or hold, collectively, a small portion of the total wealth compared to the upper 5 and 1 percent. While many assume that the masses, (being a form of livestock for the Elite) are an important aspect of the future of the empire and involved directly, (as in reaping any benefits) in its survival or recovery as an empire, the curious nature of the changes in the last thirty-years or so seem to cast that underlying assumption into a troubling doubt.

We will continue to see the implication of a collective "we" as a form of propaganda that confabulates the tangible, secure reinforcement of major players, entrenched families and manipulative, ingrained institutions. That will serve a buffering function as we see that group insulate and sequester itself more and more from the decay and destitution of large segments of the population. From there, it is hard to extrapolate when the tipping point will be and in just what ways it will manifest since there will be a threshold where far too many people find themselves falling down, impoverished, disenfranchised and desperate beyond repair.

[Hardrada]

6. Sample tipping points: The National Guard marches up

and opens fire on the Bastille and not on the Parisian mob. Or when the mounted cossacks in Petrograd in 1917 wheel their horses around, draw their sabres and cut down the policemen who are firing on the women and striking industrial workers.

[Solly Mack]

8. Rah-Rah-Rah

Snicker

[Political Heretic]

9. The things that repeat themselves is history are hubris and stupidity

Empires never think they will fall