[quote]
America is no longer the center of the world. The center of the world is all over the place now. The financial capital of the world is no longer New York, it’s Singapore and Hong Kong. The Mid-West is not longer the center of the agricultural world any more, it’s South America, Central America and parts of South East Asia. America is not longer the epicenter of technology, China, Germany and Japan are. And America is not longer the center of energy, the Middle East, Russia and northern South America is. Additionally, American’s are becoming more and more apathetic so our mental capital is dying too.

I hate to be a bear, but our economy can’t run on speculation forever. There has to be substance. Right now, all we have is Brittney Spears.
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Please excuse me while I disagree with you alittle here. I agree that the global hegomony American has had in nearly all aspects of global trade/economy is over. We have taken a very explicit direction that our goal was global peace by global development. We had the marshal plan in Europe, we sent our oil services technology to the middle east and South America and such to secure more oil, and some profits for ourselves. We taught Japan and China how to build stuff well and opened up our markets to them and still allow them to manipulate their currencies to support their export economies. We have willingly and deliberalty given up our place as single world leader for a smaller, but more stable role as head chief of many stronger nations.

That isnt to say we dont do anything here. We produce millions of barrels of oil a year, and huge amounts of natural gas, coal and other minerals/materials. The midwest still produces HUGE amounts of food stuffs and we export tons of it. Asia has been trying to block our exports of rice for years to protect their farmers, cause we have boatloads to sell. GM/Ford Europe and Asia branches are very profitable and expanding. We are the leader in numerous different industries including Aerospace, military tech, pharmaseuticals, internet/computers, farming, and (yes even now) banking.

We still produce alot of stuff the world wants and needs. We just dont dominate every market like we use to. Our universities are the best in the world, and we are better than ANYONE at taking research and bringing it to the market place. I am bearish, but not dooms-dayist. We need alot of changes, deep painful changes that are caused by our willful change in global power. We will have to start building stuff or designing stuff, not just selling each other stuff. We will not be able to support the worlds desire to export everything and inport nothing to quell the other countries growing and restless populations. But we are not dead weight, nor Rome cerca 400 a.d.