End of the American Empire

Deep thoughts for today, but this has been bugging me for awhile. Via Richard Florida I found this article from the Financial Times. It provides an apropos warning from the Ottoman Empire.

[T]he upshot of this debt crisis is the sale of assets and revenue streams to foreign creditors. This time, however, creditors are buying bank shares not canal shares. And the resulting shift of power is from west to east.

Disturbing, isn't it?

Money is power, and we will become indebted to foreign nations that do not share our ideals. Sooner or later that will lead to a geopolitical shift, if it hasn't already. Just like any financially responsible individual, we should be wary of who we take money from, and for what reasons. I hope we take the advice of another blog posting I read recently.

It is this generation’s task to renew the tree of liberty and keep the American experiment going – to remain true to the ideals that made America and have driven it since 1776.

Perhaps Shakespeare had it right:

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

I am glad to understand this, but sad that I feel powerless to prevent it.