Political insider and veteran reporter Kevin Phillips has documented that every major empire over the past several hundred years has undergone a predictable cycle of collapse, usually within 10 to 20 years of its peak power.
The indications are always the same:
- The financialization of the economy, moving from manufacturing to speculation;- Very high levels of debt;
- Extreme economic inequality;
- And costly military overreaching.
Will Obama rebuild America’s manufacturing base, reduce our debt, restore economic equality, and reduce military adventurism?
So far, indications are that he wants to increase the debt with massive “stimulus” programs, instead of letting the raging financial inferno and deleveraging process burn itself out.
He has also promised to expand some areas of military spending (such as the war in Afghanistan). Unless he brings all American troops worldwide home from all military adventures, the U.S. will keep going down the tube.
Obama hints a lot about reducing inequality. But his key economic advisors are fat-cat insiders, so this may largely just be hot air.
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And these advisors are virtually all financial – not manufacturing – people, and it is doubtful that he will significantly push to move away from “financialization” and towards rebuilding the manufacturing base.
Admittedly, he has made some noises about moving towards manufacturing. For example:
He proposes an Advanced Manufacturing Fund that would identify and invest in the most compelling advanced manufacturing strategies in places that have been hard hit by the decline in manufacturing.
Rather than slashing funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership as the Bush Administration did, Obama said he would double it. The program helped create and protect over 50,000 jobs in 2006 alone, and has helped to increase the productivity of small and midsize manufacturers by up to 16%.
“That’s the kind of smart investment that will help us rebuild American manufacturing and make America more competitive,” Obama said.
But these are mere campaign promises, and I have seen no evidence to date that he intends to do much to rebuild the manufacturing sector.
Bottom line, the collapse of the American empire appears to be irreversible, even with a new president, because the root causes of the collapse are not being addressed.
November 13th, 2008 at 6:53 am
what a load of rubbish! Give the man a chance – he isn’t even the President yet and we are already inciting doubt about his ability to improve on the status quo.
November 13th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Faisal, the guy isn’t superman, and some of the things he’s proposing are going to speed up the empire collapse rather than reverse it, his plan to send more troops to Afghanistan has to be one of the most ill advised ideas I’ve heard yet, the US should have pulled out of Afghanistan at least 4 years ago, these military adventures HAVE to stop right now, the US just can’t afford it.
November 13th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Faisal,
If Obama wasn’t the status quo than he wouldn’t be in position to be the next president.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:14 am
…because he is a globalist. He’s not for The United States of America. RESTORE THE CONSTITUTION. endthefed.us
November 13th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Why does this site SELL its dvd’s? Wouldn’t it be best to just distribute the information to everyone to get the message out?
This kind of action makes me question the intentions of Alex Jones and what his real agenda is.
-The Highlander
DroneMaster1 Reply:
February 21st, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Highlander,
Have you EVER heard Alex Jones talk? He never mentions his movies (the DVDs you’re referring to) without making an URGENT plea that the movies be placed on the share drives such as emule, shareeza, limewire, etc. Check those programs before you confirm nonsense suspicions, okay?
November 13th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
“The same thing is achieved by a government by printing money beyond the limit of the gross national product, an economic process called inflation. This puts a large quantity of money into the hands of the public and maintains a balance against their greed, creates a false self-confidence in them and, for awhile, stays the wolf from the door.
They must eventually resort to war to balance the account, because war ultimately is merely the act of destroying the creditor, and the politicians are the publicly hired hit men that justify the act to keep the responsibility and blood off the public conscience. (See section on consent factors and social-economic structuring.)” – From “Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars”
November 13th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I thought making hamburgers was manufacturing? Where am I?
November 13th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
This guy is the same as all the other misguided naysayers. Obama hasn’t even taken office. His administration will mirror Bush’s. There will be only slight differences between Buch & Obama except for who is the puppeteer. We will not come out of Iraq, Guantanamo will not be shut down, etc., etc. Want to know who really runs America (and soon the World), look no further that Hank Paulson’s handlers. Get busy researching who Paulson et al get their marching orders from.