>From the Guardian's business editor:
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Bush fiddles with economy while Baghdad burns
Could a faltering dollar and global rebellion against its values presage the decline, and eventual fall, of the American empire, asks Mark Tran
Wednesday March 26, 2003
But does the US colossus have feet of clay? It takes a brave soul to argue that America, the world's largest economy and by far its most potent military power, is about to go into decline, when it is widely perceived as a hyperpower. But Independent Strategy, a financial research company for institutional investors, has made the case in a paper that is making the rounds of big investment banks such as Goldman Sachs.
Independent Strategy believes that the US shows many symptoms of an empire that is cresting .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,922217,00.html