Signs of a Dying Empire

[Galen]

(10-16-2017, 11:46 AM)Eric the Obtuse Wrote:

(10-14-2017, 09:55 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: The US empire existed for a quarter century before the petrodollar.  Ultimately it's based on geography - the US geographic position on both of the world's major oceans.  There's every likelihood that the US could find a way to keep the empire going for the rest of the century, should it so choose.

And probably longer, although it will be in a long decay unless it is reformed; chiefly by removing Reaganomics, and by removing any further plans for a New American Century through imperial wars.

I would mark the Spanish-American War or possibly the First World War since that marks the failure of the British Empire with the interwar period as the transition between the two empires.  The US Empire has been fighting against the rising costs of projecting power from the center that helped kill the British Empire.  This is why the the US will not stay in power as long and also why it went much faster into currency debasement than the British did.

As usual Eric the Obtuse completely misses the point.  Reagan was a step on the trend to fiscal dissolution that was well under way by the mid-sixties thanks to LBJ and his Great Society programs along with the war in Vietnam.  The need for congress critters to bribe voters was enough to keep that spending and borrowing going which has continued to the present.  The wars are necessary to continue the surveillance state.

I often wonder how someone like Eric the Obtuse manages to remember to keep breathing.