> Somewhat overstated. The US remains the largest economy in the World,
> the most significant military power, and, as they never stop telling us,
> the paymaster of the significant international institutions.
The EU is larger. China plus Japan, or France plus Russia, gives you military parity with the US. And the Eurobanks are the paymasters of the global economy (http://www.efn.org/~dredmond/bankwtch.html); the IMF/World Bank, evil as they are, dole out more policy prescriptions than cash.
> And while Japan by no means fell as far as was predicted in the East
> Asian crisis, the striking condition of the Eighties, in which Japan
> became creditor to the US has been overcome. The Euro, too, is not
> looking that healthy.
Japan was never a creditor to the US. The US became a net debtor in 1985, and is running 4%-of-GDP current account deficits with the EU and Japan. The Eurobanks are going to make one hell of a killing by stocking up on euros with overvalued dollars.
-- Dennis