Is this the end of America?

[alienlovechild 75]

Helicopter Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of fresh paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United States is cracking jokes on late night comedy shows, his energy minister is threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury secretary is dithering over a banking reform program amid rising concerns over his competence and a monumentally dysfunctional U.S. Congress is launching another public jihad against corporations and bankers.

As an aghast world — from China to Chicago and Chihuahua — watches, the circus-like U.S. political system seems to be declining into near chaos. Through it all, stock and financial markets are paralyzed. The more the policy regime does, the worse the outlook gets. The multi-ringed spectacle raises a disturbing question in many minds: Is this the end of America?

Probably not, if only because there are good reasons for optimism. The U.S. economy has pulled out of self-destructive political spirals in the past, spurred on by its business class and corporate leaders, the profit-making and market-creating people who rose above the political turmoil to once again lift the world out of financial crisis. It’s happened many times before, except for once, when it took 20 years to rise out of the Great Depression.

Past success, however, is no guarantee of future recovery, especially now when there are daily disasters and new indicators of political breakdown. All developments are not disasters in themselves. The AIG bonus firestorm is a diversion from real issues , but it puts the ghastly political classes who make U.S. law on display for what they are: ageing self-serving demagogues who have spent decades warping the U.S. political system for their own ends. We see the system up close, law-making that is riddled with slapdash, incompetence and gamesmanship.

One test of whether we are witnessing the end of America is how many more times Americans put up with congressional show trials of individual business people and their employees, slandering and vilifying them for their actions and motives. And for how long will they tolerate a President who berates business and corporations as dens of crime and malfeasance? If the majority of Americans come to accept the caricatures of business as true, then America is closer to the end of its life as a global leader, as a champion of markets and individualism.

But America is at risk in other ways, especially in the technical business of setting and executing policy. The presidency of Barack Obama has set out on a course that has no precedent in U.S. history. Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal transformed the U.S. economy during the Great Depression, pushed America off on a sharply different political and ideological course. The Obama administration is different in many ways, not least in its supreme self-confidence in its methods and objectives.

Reform of health care, environmental policy, education, energy, banking, regulation — every nook and cranny of the U.S. economy has been put on alert for major change. Expansion of government spending, plunging the U.S. into unprecedented deficits, is without parallel. In economic policy, through regulation and control of energy output, financial services and monetary expansion, the U.S. government has embarked on a fundamental reshaping of America. It is designed, in short, to bring on the end of America.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/f...of-america.aspx

[Peikko 1,575]

Ah, another 'the sky is falling moment'. Blissful.

[LoriLawless 0]

Yes, America is ending. Everybody have sex before it's too late!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Well, at least you and a half dozen or so here will be happy. You can all say, " I told you so", and slap each other on the back.

[alienlovechild 75]

Well, at least you and a half dozen or so here will be happy. You can all say, " I told you so", and slap each other on the back.

Weren't you one the posters hailing the upturn in the stock market as sign that Obama's economic policies are working? Don't forget about how the fundementals of the economy are now somehow stronger now under Obama than than when he mocked McCain for saying almost the same thing months ago?

Luckily there are so many more people unemployed now so they can see Obama's comedic talents and his Four Final Picks. Bread and circuses.

[meowmeowmeow 1]

i believe that america will lose the influence that it has enjoyed globally in the next 20 years, and that china, russia, india, etc. will become more dominant powers in the world than they are now.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

If it is - thank you very much, the Bush Administration and members of the GOP Party for making it all possible.

[Ban Hammer 13,347]

If it is - thank you very much, the Bush Administration and members of the GOP Party for making it all possible.

terminal bds.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Is this the end of America?

Nope. The Americas will be around long after this all fades into obscurity.

[SteveColo 0]

George Carlin said it best ... "America is already circling the toilet, we just never heard the flush"

This isn't just about Obama and the latest economic mess ... The USA has been slipping for a couple decades now ... in 50 years, we will no longer be the world power. Course I'll be dead by then ...

[SpiritAlight 1]

"The end of America?"

Bah!

Let it end.

Hallelujah!

It needs to be rebuilt from the very foundation, as it obviously didn't work the way it was headed.

Blatant greed and disregard for anything natural, including us humans....how long did anyone think it could sustain its unsustainable self?

Conscious creative humanitarian and animaltarian (hee, hee) is the way to go.

Happy rebuilding every one.

This means you!

Edited March 21, 2009 by SpiritAlight

[Ban Hammer 13,347]

"The end of America?"

Bah!

Let it end.

Hallelujah!

It needs to be rebuilt from the very foundation, as it obviously didn't work the way it was headed.

Blatant greed and disregard for anything natural, including us humans....how long did anyone think it could sustain its unsustainable self?

Conscious creative humanitarian and animaltarian (hee, hee) is the way to go.

Happy rebuilding every one.

This means you!

yeah, we'll just have to move north and take over canada.

[*Robert* 2]

Ah, another 'the sky is falling moment'. Blissful.

Things that make you go... Hmmmmmmm

If this is the end of America, just think what would have happend if McGeezer and MILF go elected!!!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

If it is - thank you very much, the Bush Administration and members of the GOP Party for making it all possible.

Quite true Steven, but the whiners are so blind, they live in a fantasy world.

[Danno 1,228]

Ah, another 'the sky is falling moment'. Blissful.

I'm betting if you were on the Titanic, you'd have been listing to the band play rather then securing a seat on a life-boat.