Marc I agree about the situation change worldwide. We are talking a lot also in France even as the situation remain stable. My wife compare the U.S. situation to that of Spain in the 17-18th century and I found her comparison better than any others.
HQ I would have shared your analysis about Russia but as oil is going down the level of state incom in that country will go down also. I'm convinced that Russia will do good but I doubt it to be a future major player.
Jest, I know that you are very supportive of US and you are right. If I had to trust someone that would be a U.S. citizen but if I had to distrust someone that would be a U.S. politician (or banker
). I haven't been in U.S. since 2003 and that's only because I hardly consider your country a democracy anymore. DON'T KILL ME ON THE SPOT. U.S. citizens are democratic, deeply attached to their democracy, honest (in their thinking) and trustworthy, but your administration is not currently so (or so I feel). Hey people, your are the bosses, the guy in the White House and those in Congress are your employees.
I might be wrong but when you take a oath that is to the people not to the government (you can say something similar about us).
Russia and China don't have much to do with this except that they have the true wealth. You are in California and if I remember well you had an issue some years ago (15 or so) about some public contractor. The governor at the time chose an american company to do the job over a japanese one. The problem was that the american company was producing everything in Korea while the japanese would have done it in the U.S., employing U.S. citizens.
One last thing, we all talk about Russia and China but don't forget India and South America; old habits die hard. Ok, the West currently represent 50% (at least) of the world financial wealth and that is shrinking quickly (not the case when it comes to industrial and raw material production) but we only represent 15% of the population. Therefore, 15% of the world is doing bad, 5% is doing terrible (I don't really know how terrible), that hardly make it for the entire humanity.
Future will be interesting, we are all living trough a great time of world history.
