Economic Meltdown in 2005?

A host of economic and political forces are leading to growing concern about the bursting of an "historically unprecedented credit bubble" that could lead to a collapse of the U.S. economy.

1 minute read

January 22, 2005, 11:00 AM PST

By Michael Dudley


Present worrisome trends include "a persistent and increasing resort to debt-financed growth and a concomitant, growing imbalance in the trade deficit, leading the U.S. ever further into financial dependency ...leaving it dangerously indebted to rival nations, which could (at least theoretically) pull the plug at any time. This, in turn, is occurring against the backdrop of an increasingly problematic, Vietnam-style quagmire in Iraq, against imperial overstretch, and against a related ongoing crisis in energy prices, itself spurring an ever more frantic competition for energy security, which will surely intensify existing global and regional rivalries."

Thanks to Michael Dudley

Friday, January 21, 2005 in TomDispatch

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