After leading the world for decades in to year-olds with university degrees, the country sank to 12th place in The World Economic Forum ranked the United States at a mediocre 52nd among nations in the quality of its university math and science instruction in Nearly half of all graduate students in the sciences in the U. By , in other words, the United States is likely to face a critical shortage of talented scientists.
Such negative trends are encouraging increasingly sharp criticism of the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency. Rogoff, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Treasury notes, Russian president Dimitri Medvedev insisted that it was time to end "the artificially maintained unipolar system" based on "one formerly strong reserve currency. Simultaneously, China's central bank governor suggested that the future might lie with a global reserve currency "disconnected from individual nations" that is, the U.
Take these as signposts of a world to come, and of a possible attempt, as economist Michael Hudson has argued , "to hasten the bankruptcy of the U.
After years of swelling deficits fed by incessant warfare in distant lands, in , as long expected, the U. Suddenly, the cost of imports soars. Unable to pay for swelling deficits by selling now-devalued Treasury notes abroad, Washington is finally forced to slash its bloated military budget. Under pressure at home and abroad, Washington slowly pulls U. By now, however, it is far too late. Faced with a fading superpower incapable of paying the bills, China, India, Iran, Russia, and other powers, great and regional, provocatively challenge U.
Meanwhile, amid soaring prices, ever-rising unemployment, and a continuing decline in real wages, domestic divisions widen into violent clashes and divisive debates, often over remarkably irrelevant issues. Riding a political tide of disillusionment and despair, a far-right patriot captures the presidency with thundering rhetoric, demanding respect for American authority and threatening military retaliation or economic reprisal.
The world pays next to no attention as the American Century ends in silence. One casualty of America's waning economic power has been its lock on global oil supplies. Speeding by America's gas-guzzling economy in the passing lane, China became the world's number one energy consumer this summer, a position the U. Energy specialist Michael Klare has argued that this change means China will "set the pace in shaping our global future. By , Iran and Russia will control almost half of the world's natural gas supply, which will potentially give them enormous leverage over energy-starved Europe.
Add petroleum reserves to the mix and, as the National Intelligence Council has warned , in just 15 years two countries, Russia and Iran, could "emerge as energy kingpins. Despite remarkable ingenuity, the major oil powers are now draining the big basins of petroleum reserves that are amenable to easy, cheap extraction.
The real lesson of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was not BP's sloppy safety standards, but the simple fact everyone saw on "spillcam": one of the corporate energy giants had little choice but to search for what Klare calls "tough oil" miles beneath the surface of the ocean to keep its profits up.
Compounding the problem, the Chinese and Indians have suddenly become far heavier energy consumers. Even if fossil fuel supplies were to remain constant which they won't , demand, and so costs, are almost certain to rise -- and sharply at that.
Other developed nations are meeting this threat aggressively by plunging into experimental programs to develop alternative energy sources. The United States has taken a different path, doing far too little to develop alternative sources while, in the last three decades, doubling its dependence on foreign oil imports. Between and , oil imports have risen from 36 percent of energy consumed in the U.
The United States remains so dependent upon foreign oil that a few adverse developments in the global energy market in spark an oil shock. By comparison, it makes the oil shock when prices quadrupled in just months look like the proverbial molehill. That only hikes the cost of U. At the same moment, while signing a new series of long-term delivery contracts with China, the Saudis stabilize their own foreign exchange reserves by switching to the Yuan.
Meanwhile, China pours countless billions into building a massive trans-Asia pipeline and funding Iran's exploitation of the world largest percent natural gas field at South Pars in the Persian Gulf.
Concerned that the U. Navy might no longer be able to protect the oil tankers traveling from the Persian Gulf to fuel East Asia, a coalition of Tehran, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi form an unexpected new Gulf alliance and affirm that China's new fleet of swift aircraft carriers will henceforth patrol the Persian Gulf from a base on the Gulf of Oman. Under heavy economic pressure, London agrees to cancel the U. Navy from the Indian Ocean. With just a few strokes of the pen and some terse announcements, the "Carter Doctrine," by which U.
Shen continued, "Chang is just like the Roman senator Cato the Elder, who ended every one of his speeches with the catchphrase that, 'Carthage must be destroyed!
Chang has become obsessed and paranoid. Chang is extremely self-centered, as he believes he is correct about everything. If it turns out that he is wrong, it must be someone else's fault.
Shen said that "these characteristics are the inevitable outcome of the radicalization of the individual-centered liberalism in the US. Against this backdrop, his rhetoric will resonate with some Americans. The report's most infamous scenario — the Business as Usual BAU scenario — predicted that the world's economic growth would peak around the s, then take a sharp downturn, along with the global population, food availability and natural resources.
This imminent "collapse" wouldn't be the end of the human race, but rather a societal turning point that would see standards of living drop around the world for decades, the team wrote. Related: How much time does humanity have left? So, what's the outlook for society now, nearly half a century after the MIT researchers shared their prognostications?
Gaya Herrington, a sustainability and dynamic system analysis researcher at the consulting firm KPMG, decided to find out. In the November issue of the Yale Journal of Industrial Ecology , Herrington expanded on research she began as a graduate student at Harvard University earlier that year, analyzing the "Limits to Growth" predictions alongside the most current real-world data.
Herrington found that the current state of the world — measured through 10 different variables, including population, fertility rates, pollution levels, food production and industrial output — aligned extremely closely with two of the scenarios proposed in , namely the BAU scenario and one called Comprehensive Technology CT , in which technological advancements help reduce pollution and increase food supplies, even as natural resources run out.
Or why over 10, hours of video stay classified. Or why there are numerous individuals not named or charged. Why BLM raised tens of millions but not one dollar to help the thousands of African American families that lost someone to gang violence. Why everyone calling school choice racist has there kids in private school. I was so mad when people rushed in capital even though you could see them bring let in.
The writer correctly points out the problems with wealth gap, access to food and health care services as a boiling point today. The people of the United States, more than anything have typically only wanted a fair chance, or an even playing field if you will in terms of economic opportunity. There is certainly and argument to be made that a fair playing field is fleeting. For example, young people become indebted due to education and are forced to be insurance poor do the rising sick care system costs.
These problems however are solvable and can be improved by bankruptcy law reform, access to online education, and medical malpractice tort limits for example.. But those in power would rather fester hatred between races when the truth is that working class whites and blacks have much more in common than not!
The events at the capital can hardly be described as an insurrection and can be accurately described as a response to the organized censorship of conservative voices and purposeful amputation of the rule of law regarding the actions of protestors on the left throughout the United States.
This is designed to try to invite a racewar. Historically speaking the communist and autocratic foreign enemies have already identified race as a way to collapse the United States from within. It is a standard TTP. The censureship power of big tech allows for the exponential magnification of the voices which fit the narrative while effectively silencing those that do not. Some of this, in essence, was discussed in federalist 10 when describing faction or mob rule.
Ever notice the high percentage of direct to consumer ads on CNN? Count them. The Capitol events was an act of anger and hardly an attempt coup. Indeed a main instigator of the escalation of violence was a self described communist taking advantage of the flammable atmosphere for his own personal gain. Look it up yourself. The writer seems, like many on the bandwagon, to fail to understand the difference between communism and fascism.
If he takes the time to understand these differences he would be much better equipped to synthesize recent events. We are on a road to communism and government dependency not fascism. Like many haters of the American system, the writer tries to make an illogical comparison in order to throw out the ideas of Hitler and fascism and lik them to Trump.
Here is the other perspective from the daughter of a mother in the polish underground and a father that joined the Russian army and was a war hero. I am terrified of the democrat party.
I believe you have moved from deconstructing to destroying the American experiment. Your brown shirts, BLM and antifa terrorized america. You have, de facto, defunded the police so public safety is gone.
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