While I agree with the your overarching opinion, that the USA is going to stay on top for a while, I believe the USA is definitely not as "strong" as it used to be and I must admit that I'm a bit skeptical about the future.
What makes you skeptical about the future? Our national economy is great.
-- the U.S. economy is now in its fifth year of solid economic expansion. Almost any country in the world would gladly trade its economic conditions for a U.S. economy.
-- In Canada, it was headline news in June that the unemployment rate fell to a 32-year low of 6.1 percent. In more than a decade, the United States has not had an unemployment rate higher than 6 percent except for five months in 2003, and our media disparagingly dismissed that period as a "jobless recovery."
-- Nine states have set record-low unemployment rates so far in 2006, and an additional 15 states are within a percent of their historical low jobless rates.
-- Almost half of all states are at or near their lowest jobless rates in history
-- we have a national unemployment rate of 4.6 percent, almost any country in Europe would love to have our labor market conditions.
-- It's been more than a quarter-century since France or Germany has had unemployment rates anywhere close to 4.6 percent, and 30 years since the European Union countries as a group have had a jobless rate that low.
-- If the European Union were a U.S. state, its current overall unemployment rate of 7.5 percent would rank it the highest in the United States except for Mississippi.
-- more than 5.2 million U.S. jobs that have been created in the past two years, a pace that adds more than 142,000 jobs every month
-- phenomenal 5.2 percent growth in real U.S. output so far this year, which is double the growth rate of most European countries
And what about the dire warnings of the "2003 tax cuts for the rich" that the media trumpeted so loudly several years ago?
Where are the reports today about the explosion in tax revenues generated by the strongest economy in a decade, and the increasing share of taxes paid by "the rich?"
-- In the first eight months of the current fiscal year, federal tax receipts have increased by 13 percent, the second-highest rate of growth for that eight-month period in the last 25 years, surpassed only by last year's increase of 15 percent.
Further, the share of taxes paid by the wealthiest 10 percent has increased in each year since the 2003 tax cut, rising from less than 50 percent of all income taxes paid in 2003 to almost 60 percent in 2005.
In other words, the media spin about "tax cuts for the rich" never materialized - tax revenues have increased significantly and the rich are paying more in taxes. Where are the news stories now about the "tax hike for the rich"?
Even in its worst recession, the U.S. economy is still stronger than almost any other country in the world during its best years.
And yet, even now, when the U.S. economy has a historically high level of employment, historically low unemployment rates in nine states and higher national income, output and tax revenues than at any time in U.S. history, the economy still gets no respect. Why?
Japan and China literally support our national debt (through Treasuries) and so they are gaining a lot more power that allows them negotiate terms that favor them. Additionally, because the USA is in quite a deficit countries like China will begin to not take the dollar as easily as they have done in the past.
I disagree. Read the last paragraph of my first post.