Eyes On The Train Wreck

I was reading about the G20 summit in Washington and I thought to myself, so this is what the end of the American Empire looks like. Mine is just another day in the life of a minor citizen of the Empire going about his business, so I find myself observing shifting economic from the perspective of just another bemused reader and I wonder to myself what one is supposed to do about it all. I do get mad at these financial wizards for screwing up our lives but there isn't much I can do about them. I just feel its a little too soon for America to be giving up her leadership spot, Epires after all generally last longer than a couple of generations. But perhaps silicon and electrons have speeded up the rate of human decay alonsgide the speed of human communications.

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I figured the G20 summit was a polite way for the rest of the world to let the US know that they aren't taking our dollars anymore and it was time for us to step aside as the world's pre-eminent economic power. After all the rest of the world is spinning into a Depression right alongside us and it seems a little much to ask them to continue buying our debt, debt that we have used to fund our extravagant unproductive lifestyle. In a normal world this chaos would justify poking a very long stick at us to shove us out into the current of historical oblivion and watch us swirl away down the plughole. The American Empire should be just the latest in a series of superpowers consigned to the dustbin of history.

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As our unemployment statistics sink to Depression era status, Iceland goes bankrupt (Iceland??) China grumbles that their economy is slowing while unemployment is rising and Japan is freaking out because they are slipping back into deflation and despair. Russia is on the verge of another Revolution that may oust the freshly elected Medvedev as the economy returns to basket case status, and pushes Mr Putin back into the top job. Gold is indecisive and fluctuating like a wallflower at a ball, high today, low tomorrow, manipulated by who knows what dark forces. And still the US`dollar remains in high demand, a powerful reserve currency against other forms of exchange.

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At this point I am working on the assumption that no one has a clue what's going on. The Bush Administration is sliding rapidly into irrelevance and the Obama Administration is already starting to influence policy. I love reading websites that try to predict the future, because the future cannot be predicted. These really are interesting times. I feel an unexpected, impermissible surge of excitement, as I wait to see what madness happens next. The routine of my planned old age seems on the verge of evaporating, which some days scares me, other days annoys me and on a few days makes my blood fizz with excitement. The irony for me is that finally after a lifetime of searching I had found a place and a time to settle down, with my wife, our friends, our fulfilling and interesting jobs, our vacations and our mundane daily routines. I've lived a half century in a constant search for fulfillment in places where I wasn't, and now here I am, happy in my skin and in my life and bam!- the world explodes in a shower of broken promises. I know its not all about me but I am staring at the fireworks and wondering whatever else comes next this is a show I wouldn't want to miss. I am embarrassed by my fascination but I cannot avert my gaze. Whatever next? Inflation? Deflation? A Gold Standard? Bring it on, inquiring minds want to know.