[Skybird]

Quite some mere beliefs that you present as facts there, Lance, turning it all as to matching your classical economy theory (while there are some people who would argue that there is not a single economy theory so far that ever has worked).

Even the most hardcore proponents of state spending have to admit that it is both (a) expensive, and (b), never accomplishes much.

That si such a beoluef that you just take as fact. But obviously whether or not spendings become expensive or not depends on how much is being spend and what is being gotten in return, and to say that it automatically never accomplishes much is - a generalisation.

Truth is, investement and purpose must be carefully balanced.

And another assumption of yours is that you express the expectation that now and forever the whole world is depending on the US as a consumer, and that the world will continue to deliver to you even if you cannot pay with anything else anymore than just toy chips. That löeaves you extremely vulnerable. Because the balance already is shifting. The Chinese have announced - and started in practice - to reduc e their delivery volume to the US, and their intent to disconnect their economic interest from American demand. They are patiently preparing to take over the role for the globally dominant currency. The OPEC so far did not acchieve unity in their own plan to disconnect the oil sales from the follar, but once the oil become thin in avialability, and their own fates and incomes threatened, they qwill skip the dollar faster than you can say "Holdit". For Europeans, the Asian markets become more and more important, namely China. Already today, if you take into account that the Chinese currency is artifically undervalued and thus you calculate compensation for that - not the US but China then is the globe's leading and biggest economy. Your own country has caused at least two major crisis of world economy in the recent three years, and preparing the third one is alredy under way. If you think we foriegner nations have iunlimite dpatience with you becaue you are unable to launch dratsric structural feforms in your country and are unwilling and/or unable to ever cut your spending frenzies and to start paying back your debts, than you are naive. China already has started to reduce the importance you have for its economy.

You make a classical and often made mistake there, Lance, a historical one. It is about the structural dynamic of empire'S inner nature. Almost all empires, including the American one (I use the term fact-oriented, not attaching any moral judgement to it), had an inner core or centre of power, and a periphery were its power and influence slowly vained the more away you were from the core. In these peripheries, empires cannot escape the need to act and intervene, even when violating their moral claims and self-understandings, becasue not reacting to challenges in the periphery would mean to lose influence and a weakening of the core. Throughout their excistence, the attention regarding trade and luxury and prestige however focusses on the core, on the centre. In the Roman empire, this was the city of Rome. The flow of goods from the provinces to the centre, the capital in this case, was more and more laid out, until the balance between mutual trade and dependent one-sided trade tipped to the latter and turned the centre becoming heavily dependent on the deliveries from the periphery, the provinces. In Rome it went that far that in the end phase the Romans did not even had any potent craftsman of their own left in the region of Rome, becasdu they were used in tghe3 capital tpo just enjoy the luxury and they took it for granted that their life would only consist of enjoying it. We know how it ended. In the end the e mpire split, was impotent to survive as a whole, and heavily dependant in its centre(s). It withdrew from the periphery more and more, and shrank. And the more it shrank, the weaker it became.

In much the same way you simply assume that the finances of the globe always would flow towards America. But as if this is not soelf-deceiving enough, you oversee that trade is different now then it was some time ago: the big actors in money and bsuiness know no national loyalty or preference anymore, the money travels 24/7 around the globe and the trade goes where the profit is, no matter nationa loayalties, no matter legal rules. Additionally, the EU zone becomes minimised in their importance, in parts (aircrtaft) competes with your own aircraft insutry, in parts is not in a position to offer you salvation.

And we all know that you pay the fgoods you get deliovered with less and less valuable money, and bonds that meanwhile have become so risky to accept that even the first Americfan rating agencies have started to warn that they will withdrew their triple-A ratings for America.

The last remaining trump card of your nation, is its military. And the Chinese are on their way to neutrlaise even that card of yours, especially inj those regions where you could hurt China in case of a hot war. And this even ignores that you are maintaing a military so expensive that if others would not lend you money anymore, your econoym simply could no longer afford or maintain it. Add to this also the enormous problems in infrastructure and powergrids.

You say you see America in a monopolistic power position that forces others in their own interest to play your game while you consume the fruits of it and claim that to be your service? Take care you do not fool yourself there, just wasting more time. I am by far not the only one who totally disagrees with your self-assessment. The Chinese premier's visit to the US has begun today, I think, yes? Read what he said just before he lft from China, when adressing currency problems, and note HOW he said it. It speaks volumes. He threw the glove into the ring, nothing else but this it means - and he is in the much stronger position.

Yes, you will pull most of the world down with yourself. Nevertheless, the world already has started to silently, slowly turn away from you. You just refuse to read the signs - because you have no plan B. All you know to do is: business as usual, more of the same, endlessly. By delaying pay day endlessly, you hope to escape it. But delaying it only works for so long - and not longer. Your - and our - nation(s) already did not get along with their incomes when their economic situation was great. It will never become so great again, and will remain to be more challenged than ever before, with knew rivals, and shoprtzages of precious resources, overaging populations, and much higher debt burdens than back then.

And you put your trust into something like "once the economic crapstorm is over"...? You could as well put your trust into the tooth fairy. The framing conditions do not become easier. They become even more difficult. Not less, but more crisis. Intervals shortening. Amplitudes increasing.