"This might be the beginning of the end of the American empire"

[steve2470]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/magazine/17pessimist-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&em

Dr. Doom

By STEPHEN MIHM
Published: August 15, 2008

On Sept. 7, 2006, Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, stood before an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund and announced that a crisis was brewing. In the coming months and years, he warned, the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession. He laid out a bleak sequence of events: homeowners defaulting on mortgages, trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities unraveling worldwide and the global financial system shuddering to a halt. These developments, he went on, could cripple or destroy hedge funds, investment banks and other major financial institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

*more at link above*

The quote in the subject line is by Mr. Roubini. Interesting article.

[marmar]

1. That process is well under way.....

The USA is like an aging movie star holding on to past glory, unable to accept that its marquee days are gone.