i have said it before, the reason we are on top is that we are the best customers that the world has, most every nation's economy is based on our purchasing their products, that means if we fail, every major exporting country in the world fails.
thats why china is doomed to fail as well, they think that having our gold will help them, but the fact is that no other country in the world has everything they need right in their own country like we do... there is nothing that we need for survival that we can't make for ourselves.
i live in kentucky, and even we could live without imports from anyone in the world period.

China has 1.3 billion people. as they keep developing they'll start to produce for their domestic market. the US economy is burdened by huge debt, but worse is outsourcing. American exports are declining. one US advantage is the position of the geenback as the global reserve currency. what happens when that changes? and it will change... eventually. Amerca will be the sole military superpower for quite sometime, but it's influence will decline as the economic power declines. just take a look at china this week and the nobel peace prize.1/3 of the countries invited to Oslo failed to turn up because China put pressure on them not to. that's called INFLUENCE.

America has a huge influence around the world because of its economic and military power. the reason why the US can spend so much on the military is because of its strong economy. but when things start going downhill the US will see defence cuts and the US will have to reduce its military presence around the world.

the last couple of years we've already seen the US expressing concern at Chinese military spending increases- why is the US the sole superpower expressing concern? because they know that although China is nowhere near them at present, it wont take huge changes to make China more of a threat.

if we look at Great Britain in the late 19th century. for years they were in economic decline but it took a while for that to be seen militarily. even then though Britain projecting the image of massive naval superiority even though by 1900 the Royal Navy had declined in relative strength majorly compared to powers such as Germany and the US.

China is starting to build carriers, Russia is building new ones (allegedly) so is India, Britain too & France (possibly). Brazil is building up the navy too.

America will be number 1 for the next 2 decades but whereas in the South China Sea they had total superiority, the Chinese will have developed into a major threat.

the traditional US Carrier  Group IMO will just not have the same influence it once did. especially not if the chinese have their own carriers, and Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles.

at Present the USA owns the Gulf and dominates the Indian Ocean, but how long will that go on for?especially after defence cuts?

well, on the surface emperor you'd be right, but from what i know they are doing a ponzi scheme on china.

first; from what i have heard they got our gold in return for the debt that we owed them, but that is superficial, gold isn't like it used to be, there are plenty of things that are more valuable that we have, and i think the gold mines that the government owns (that they purposely left the gold in) could produce enough additional gold to drop the cost of it in a year if they wanted to.

second; our money is't gone, and we really aren't in that much debt, most of it we owe to ourselves, than to actual other countries (don't forget that the other countries owe us too) if they let a investigative accountant look at it we would find that most of our debt is hung up in the same crap that they talked about in the movie Dave "where the guy poses as the president".

third; all property that is owned in the US by other countries can be confiscated with an act of congress so thats like swamp land to them.

fourth; like i said, we don't need anything from other countries that we can make for ourselves, but they need us.

"In 2000 the US accounted for 32% of the Worlds GDP"

GDP measures consumption and not the production potencial of the economy.
Also ask yourself the question which economy is stronger:
a) one that produces one car for $1,000,000 (GDP=1mil)
b) one that produces 1,000,000 cars for $1 each (GDP=1mil)

Us mainly "declined" compared to its share in the total world economy. If 1/4 of its population is moving from a third world country to a little less poor, then % are bound to go down.

So its not the US going down, but other countries going up. And being "nr 1" is always a perspective.

All in all the future of US doesn't look as bleak as the future of many other. They have massive amounts of natural resources. B2B makes a valid point there.

Only if you're into mercantilism, which pretty much disproved its effectiveness with European imperialism and both world wars.

60% of the oil consumed by the US is from abroad. anyone wonder why the US has been so protective of the mid east?

dude, get back to reality. why do you think the US has had the middle east on lockdown since the 1970s?

if the US did not have to import oil they would do it in a HEARTBEAT. why? because the economy and military of all nations relies on oil.

the US military has either 3 or 6 months worth of oil reserves (i forget which figure it is). in the 1970s the US imported 36% of its oil. today it imports 60%.

the oil reserve is basically designed so that if oil imports stop, they have several months of oil to allow their military to invade somewhere with oil to get the supply flowing again.

it really is crazy how the whole world is dependent on oil.

so basically the US has a secret stash of oil that is bigger than the reserves in the mid east, but isnt telling one until after the mid east runs out?

well of course they are no where near tapped out now!

what about in 20 or 30 years time?

Here read this highly credible and accurate source for discussion
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_percentage_of_us_oil_comes_from_the_middle_east

We're going out with a bang!
/launchNukes