there's a distinct sense of repetition there, Doug. but how about adding in this: the 1929 depression signaled the beginning of the economic collapse of Britain as the global power, WW2 ushered in the handover the thee US. there too, the shift in debt was crucial, as Dennis has been pointing out is the case here.
do anyone really think that US hegemony is the same thing as capitalist hegemony, in the sense that if the former falls the latter does also? - that's a serious question, btw.
and, maybe Zizek is right: anti-americanism in the world is today not, as we might hope, a populist code for anti-capitalism, but rather a popular form of national chauvinism and racism that no longer automatically translates into anti-capitalism.
which is not to minimize the seriously atrocious character of US global hegemony, merely to think a little 'ahead', especially given the predominance of the left's discursive bond between anti-US imperialism and anti-capitalism.
angela
(who is not a yank, and thankful for having been spared any of the craziness that this would induce.)