America - 2104, page 1

Basically I don't see much of a future for the USA. Up until now it has had the top economic card and the top military card. It is shortly about to lose its economic card so it is keen to show it still has its military card.

US National Debt = $7,147,545,929,573.40

Or if you like $7.1 Trillion.

Not to mention the $500 billion a year trade deficit.

www.publicdebt.treas.gov...

Once you add in military retirement payments, Social Security (empty "trust fund"), etc., the national debt is probably more like $30 trillion.

All that American debt testifies to the USA's free ticket to creating dollars out of thin air. As long as they aren't spent in the USA, the USA can effectively pay interest in dollars on the dollars it borrows back from the whole world, ie. it has free loans and is paying funny money for foreign goods and services... for the time being.

Dunno what the EU National debt is but the EU runs at a trade surplus. The Euro is a lesser reserve currency but you can't buy oil directly with Euros (yet). When you can it will be the only real reserve currency.

Once you see the Euro as a reserve and oil currency you can kiss the US economy goodbye. Just look at Iraq for an example of what happens to a country that starts trading oil for Euros.

Once the rest of the world wakes up and starts trying to get out of the dollar for whatever reason (oil peak, war, terror attacks), allllll that cash will flow back to the USA and cause hyperinflation.

The mysterious process that would cause the US economy to collapse is the change in exchange rates. While US dollars are the reserve currency in which oil is traded, all nations need to ensure that they have a fistful of dollars in reserve with which they can buy oil. This means that the US treasury can print and spend dollars and can get goods in return while being confident that most of these dollars are safely tied up in foreign national banks and will not be "cashed in" against the US reserves. In effect the US has literally been able to print money since the gold standard was abolished.

If Euros become the new reserve currency, all of a sudden there will be a whole lot of dollars used to pay off any trade balances with the US. Instead of getting goods in return for paper, the US will start to get paper in return for goods. The final effect will be massive inflation in the US and a plummeting dollar on the international exchange markets.

Yes, the USA is heading for complete financial collapse taking most of the world with it leaving the EU to emerge as the dominant economic world power.

If you look at history currency systems have only ever lasted about 30 years so we are long overdue for a complete crash since the USA stopped backing the dollar with gold in the 1970s.

It's been a fun last 50 years but the party is almost over !