HISTORIAN WHO PREDICTED
DOWNFALL OF USSR
NEARLY THIRTY YEARS AGO
NOW PREDICTS DOWNFALL OF US

I remember when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, my old friend, Matt, told me about an economist he had heard of who had predicted not only the fall of communism, but also of capitalism. The jury is still out on capitalism, but in the same predictive vein, I offer this link, courtesy of J. Orlin Grabbe:

A rift has been developing, slowly at first and then more quickly, between the US and their various geo-political areas of interest. During the early 1970's a deficit in the balance of trade began to open. The US assumed the role of consumer and the rest of the world took on the role of producer, in this increasingly unbalanced global process. The balance of trade went from a deficit of $100 billion in 1990 to $500 billion annually at present. This deficit has been financed through capital flowing into the US. Eventually the same effect experienced by the Spanish in 16th and 17th centuries will come to bear. As gold from the New World flooded in, the Spanish succumbed to decreasing productivity. They consumed and dissipated, lived high and beyond their means and fell into economic and technological arrears.

Oh yeah, did I say that this is a French historian? No? Well, he is. Hee hee. Click here.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$