The Big Squeeze continued: Vibe Decline

My brother mentioned to me he had been listening to old Neil Young records and it depressed him. I said, well, Neil did write some depressing stuff but you should recall the time when he wrote and recorded them. The 1970s. 

I've been reading about the British Raj in a book called The Anarchy. Dalrymple, the auhor, spoke about the sense of dread in England in 1780. The East India Company seemed on the verge of collapse in India, and the Crown had just lost the thirteen colonies. Parliament felt it was the decline of the British Empire, but it turned out to be vibe decline. The Empire still had a good 120 years left in it.

Back to the 1970s. Many thought it the end of American hegemony. The Long Boom was over. The Oil Embargo and Energy Crisis. Soviets surpassing us in space accomplishments. Manufacturing threats from rebuilt countries like Japan and Germany. Our own infrastructure mostly from the 19th century, despite the build out of WWII. Corruption and crisis in both big business and government. Stagflation. Sure looked depressing, but it was a vibe decline.The US empire probably has got another 20 years just on inertia alone.

The question is, is the US currently going through a vibe decline or a real decline?

Over at Economics From the Top Down, Blair Fix has an essay entitled The Half Life of  Empire that suggests, yes the US is in decline, and peaked in 1945. China overtook us in 2009, and soon India will join China in supremacy. According to Blair, the halcyon days are over, never to return.

Ironic, considering that in 1780, at the tipping point of the Industrial Revolution, China and India were two of the richest nations on Earth, manufacturing perhaps 40% of global product, most importantly textiles. Mass produced in parallel process cottage industries, and also textiles of the finest quality. Consider also that the bulk of the British Royal Navy's sailing ships were built (quite well!) in India.

The build out of satanic mills and power looms and spinning machines in England (funded by the spoils of India), soon wiped the Asian industries out; at least for the low end stuff.

And now China and India are again the workshops of the world. Does this bode a possible future for the US?

Pobably not. Given we may be in the Spike.