America in decline: a real bummer

Decline of a superpower is a real bummer, says Professor Niall Ferguson, a Brit who now teaches at Harvard.

He was interviewed last week by Peter Day on the BBC's Global Business radio show. Click here to listen to this great 25 minute interview. 

Ferguson says relative decline for a superpower is a real bummer, with serious big time economic consequences. I don't disagree.  But I take issue with Prof Ferguson on when the British Empire decline took place, however. And this only adds to the bummer, because if I am correct, it means the people of the superpower nation (this would be us Americans today) don't even realize they are in decline until decades later.

Ferguson claims the British Empire and world dominance declined after WWII. I would say it happened 100 years ago this month, when King Edward VII of England died. The Edwardian Age ended, and Great Britain went into decline.  By 1920 America was leading the world in automobiles, military might, and even stole movies from France and created Hollywood.  But apparently the Brits were clueless, like the Americans today.  In WWII even Winston Churchill actually thought the United Kingdom would get back its colonies after the war. IF America is in decline, we won't realize it until way after it is too late.  Photo: King Edward VII

Comments

[Theparallaxview]

Having learned from our mistakes, can we have America back to sort it out?

[Michael Dawson]

It's a standard imperial pattern. All successful elites grow hidebound over time. Eventually, they lose the capacity to reform their own systems.

Check out Kevin Phillips' _American Theocracy_.