10.01.2008

The Decline of the American Empire? - Part 1

BBC - American Superpower Status is Shaken

I've been glued to news websites the past couple weeks, especially opinion sections. The current (whatNOUNbestdescribesmyparanoia?) in the US is unprecedented in my lifetime. As an International Affairs major living abroad in Buenos Aires, I find the foreign reaction to the recent events in the United States intriguing and also almost unanimously in favor of the promised democratic party nominee's "Change." But there is also a fear, almost unspoken, of this American economic crisis' extreme influence over the rest of the world's economies.

But is this really that surprising? Its definitely nothing new; the US has had unarguable influence over the rest of the world in many aspects for centuries. The global community is quick to criticize American Policy, whether it be social, economic, foreign, or domestic, but when a true threat of economic collapse appears as the wall streeters' pockets start coughing up moths there is almost a pleading sense in the foreign- at least argentine- sentiment of interest in not only our current economic crisis but also in the election coming up. 

And with the whole world depending on us to set our own problems right (who would've ever thought that a failure, a fissure, an abyss, would develop out of a system of borrowing money that doesn't always exist?- I say this as an abstraction), I am perplexed, no intrigued, no amazed, no wait, that isn't quite right either, I am horrified that Americans are still considering a VP who famously bases her foreign policy experience on Alaska's proximity to Russia. How can we hope to bail out our economies (emphasis on plural) if the GOP Presidential candidate stated he "doesn't really understand economics," and the VP candidate in question can only name one supreme court case
(To Be Continued)

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