The Fall of America, Inc.

I cannot believe this statement - "The American brand is being sorely tested at a time when other models???whether China's or Russia's???are looking more and more attractive." That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. This alone impeaches the whole article.

"But in continental Europe, workers are still treated to long vacations, short working weeks, job guarantees and a host of other benefits that weaken their productivity and will not be financially sustainable."

One short comment on this sentence:

it proves a fundamental blind spot of intellectuals like Francis Fukuyama on the human condition of the working life. Most jobs are so alienating that the worker longs for the end signal from the first minute of each working day.
Denying him the aspiration of "long" (sic) holidays would make his existence something that had better not been. Whether it is sustainable or not, is immaterial: to a poor man it is the choice between luxury once, or poverty all his life.

Well, while we're talking about "tarnished brands" ...

That which now calls itself the "Democratic Party" consists no more of traditional Democrats than the current "Republican Party" consists of traditional Republicans; both have been hijacked by Wall Street, and are using the familiar brand names to mask their true agendas.

Be very wary of assuming that the "Democratic Party" represents your economic interests in the same way it did your daddy's; they will sell you out like the Neo-Pugs sold out what were assumed to be traditonal Republican values.

The "New World Order" to which both subscribe is looking to re-establish a Peonage Society; a better name for the one-party system that our Republic has become would be the "Neo-Feudalist Party".

But don't take my word for it. Just watch what happens, compadres ...

americans too clever to become foolish

this article is good,capitalism should learn from socialism

Wow, the author really hates America! So taking more of our money in the form of taxes will solve this? Right...

Sorry--"As if these things had been ushered in WITHOUT political terror."

I was a little too stunned to put my words together properly.

Talk about the end of history. Fukuyama writes about these issues as if a) he hadn't once argued that the deregulated economy, combined with liberal democracy, would bring about "the final form of human government" and (if that isn't chilling enough) b) deregulation and "reduced government" had never been ushered in without political terror. Is he deliberately turning a blind eye to this stuff?

The Antichrist!:
When George Soros failed to obtain the election of his candidate, John Kerry, in 2004, he brooded for a while, even said he might get out of politics altogether, but he just couldn???t stop himself. He has stated publicly that he wishes to burst the ???bubble of American supremacy,??? because he says our preeminence in the world is a detriment to global ???equilibrium.??? So far, he has failed, but he keeps on trying.

And Mr. Soros has made no secret either of the fact that he sees the shortest way to effect political shake-ups, what he terms ???regime changes,??? is through very difficult economic conditions.

America has not yet felt the full force of Soros style economic shock treatment. But others have.

Soros made his first billion in 1992 by shorting the British pound with leveraged billions in financial bets, and became known as the man who broke the Bank of England. He broke it on the backs of hard-working British citizens who immediately saw their homes severely devalued and their life savings cut drastically in comparative worth almost overnight.

When the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 threatened to spread globally, George Soros was right in the thick of it. Soros was accused by the Malaysian Prime Minister of causing the collapse with his monetary machinations, and he was branded in Thailand as an ???economic war criminal??? who ???sucks the blood from the people.??? Right in the middle of this crisis, Soros dashed off his book, The Crisis of Global Capitalism, which demanded a ???third way??? toward economic stability.

Wake up, America, before it is too late!!!!

cani77 4.44pm

Quote, "worse than the great depression"?

Well get ready for the next world war then, 'cos that's where it ended.

Remember the old wartime adage, loose talk costs lives.
Take care with talk about depressions.

In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future.
I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
Also, he perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years
is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide the largest morgage bank in the world,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch which are 3 out of the top 5 wall street firms. Also, Fanny and Freddy Mae which hold 50 percent of the home loans in the United States.
The government took them over because they are essentially bankrupt.If they didn't the entire financially system would virtually shut down, the stock market would crash and we would suffer beyond what any of us have seen before.

McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand exactly what is broken.
It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use complex mathematical models very few people understand.
Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.

Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He either didn't care or didn't realize that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime.
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like Bush did but a tanking economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit. Most of it Bush created and it will take decades to pay it back.
If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why are the polls even close then ?



Mccains team just said they no longer want to talk about the economy.Instead they would like to spend time
running the biggest smear campaign in history.



They think they can just tell you lies and you wont be smart enough to see through it
Let's teach him we are smarter than that .
Elect Obama Biden 2008


Check out this video of sarah palins interview it will blow you away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4iQ

Is it really important to sell the American brand? During the Cold War we were opposing a satanic ideology with worldwide ambitions; Islamism might fall into that category, but joining us in opposition it does not require any particular social or economic system. If we are not going to overturn evil governments such as Saddam Hussein, or support good ones such as Israel, who gives a fig what foreign governments do within their own nations and to one another? It's none of our business, nor is it our business to cultivate future economic competitors.

What we need to do is fix our own economic an cultural problems in the American Way, and let the rest of the world do as it pleases. Europe hates not just Bush; they hate the mentality of all Americans who voted for him (e.g. NRA members and Evangelical Christians). An Obama victory is not going to change that. What good does it do for my country's leaders to enjoy foreign support if I despise them myself?

America is out-of-step with the world, but we are right and they are wrong. Since we have neither the power nor the will to rule them, the only reasonable response is to stand down from world leadership.

Blame Reagan for the dysfunctional US economy which has polluted the global financial system with toxic debt and capsized it? I don't think so.

As to the notion that the US can re-invent its global capital model, this is even less likely.

The US has lost the magic ingrediants of trust and confidence through its "Fraud Street" practises.
It has forced Europe, and the rest of the world together and look out for themselves.

History seems to be alive and kicking and on a downward trajectory. Maybe Professor Fukuyama's next book should be entitled "History: No End in Sight."