Major financial collapse coming this year

19 May 2007

Re a Greg Sheridan article on the Dalai Lama & the rise of China:

Good that you are bringing this up: China's human rights abuses are too frequently ignored by all of us.

The US empire is apparently on the brink of a forced liquidation. Evidence includes:

• The Afghanistan mess and the Iraq catastrophe.

• The twin deficits; the dollar probably heading below 80 on the US dollar index; & the utterly surreal angles on the Dow Jones index chart - all of which imply a major financial collapse as early as this year.

• Global polls finding the US is less trusted than Iran or North Korea.

• Eight years with the most neuron-poor leader on Earth at the helm.

All of which mean that China will in the lifetime of most of us become the world's leading power.

Whilst I do not mourn the passing of US influence - they were given their chance for world leadership and they blew it - to be replaced by an unreformed China is hardly going to be a victory for what remains of civilisation.

The United States cannot be saved: it can never repay its debt, nor reform its electoral system, nor rebuild its international credibility - things have gone too far.

But China is in a sense a 'new' nation: it is still in a rapid state of economic, social and ethical flux. If we can play our small role in influencing it for the better (and not caving in to its bullying over the Dalai Lama would be a good start), we shall do a bit toward re-establishing our own tattered, post-Iraq credibility.