And the US is an ever-decreasing share of the global economy - it's shrinking in relative terms. China overtook the US in World GDP share at PPP in 2014.
The US isn't suffering waning economic dominance. In fact it's gaining economic power right now.
The US Dollar is stronger than it has been in 20 years, the global reserve standard is firmly in place. The Euro and Yen present no threat to that; and the Yuan, a second tier currency, is currently being backed up by the greatest accumulation of debt in world history in China.
Since 2007 the US has added around $3.x trillion to its annual GDP, while Europe has added zero and has failed to climb above the peak before the great recession. The US will hit $18 trillion in GDP in 2015, or over nine times the size of Russia, which used to be its primary superpower competitor. While US GDP has continued to climb, most countries in Europe have been flat for ~7 years (eg Germany's or France's GDP hasn't moved since 2008).
The US share of global GDP hasn't gone down in 35 years, and is still where it was in 1995/96.
(and that's during a time, since 1980, in which both Japan and China came on line as global economic powers - to maintain the US share of GDP, the US had to keep up with China, Brazil, Japan, India and countless other countries that saw economic booms since 1980)
America has 4% of global population. This tiny country population-wise is beating the shit out of everyone else by 1000x in economic and military might. Maybe you should see our system in a better light.
It's more a symptom of an extremely chaotic and uncertain global economy than a weak American one. Investors are willing to pay the USG to lend it money because American treasuries are seen as one of the few safe places left to stash your cash.
American growth is mediocre, but far less so than that of other developed nations. Europe is still scrambling to find ever-larger guns with which to blow its own feet off, Canada and Australia are realizing that building an economy on Chinese demand for resources is bound to end in tears, and the BRICS are suddenly looking much less lucrative.
The US is still the driver of the global economy, and is doing kind of okay while everyone else is a basket case.
This is accurate. The only reason America (and dollar) holds up is because the primary competitors are worse.
China - too much government control, communist and not of the people
EU - aging and brexited
UK - inconsequential small island nation
Japan - aging
Aus/Canada - too small population to do anything
Russia - untrustworthy
India - still too poor but perhaps the only democratic country with a large enough population to counter the US dominance. But India and US appear to be very friendly to each other.
Much needed perspective: America's GDP is about equal to that of the TOTAL of rest of the 5 top countries in the world.
Plus the article is talking about it military dominance. Because no one would dare attack the US directly so our huge military is not as much of an asset.
It's like saying Michael Phelps has no where to go but down b/c he one all the medals. It's true but it also means you're the best and brightest RIGHT NOW.
In what way is America’s wealth and ignorance fading? Still the largest economy in the world, second place is a distant second when you consider their population is 4x..
I'm living in an era where the US dominance is at its highest. May be I'm alone.
Let's look around. My computer, my phone, websites and services I use, the cars (we used to buy French ones, now as Ford and other alternatives are available, we and the whole Tunisian population are somehow diversifying)....
Everything you can think of, from food to Energy or wars, if you make a deeper look and analysis, you'll notice a dependency to Europe, but more increasingly to the USA in that last decade.
China? They produce huge amounts of goods. Think of the $99 Android Tablet quality. They are quite popular, yes, but I don't think they match the Americans in term of profitability.
I really wonder how is this America big decline? They have better education, stronger army, more resources and lot of smart people.
We are going to seem to be on top, on the surface, long after we Have lost that position in actual practice.
Right now we are escalating the debt to extreme levels during the longest economic expansion in US history. I.e. we seem to be planning to bankrupt ourselves.
In the meantime, trade differences and trade wars are complex, but the net effect of the tensions with China is it is adapting away from any dependency from us, while are allies are of little help because we dropped our agreements with them.
In the meantime, the US has been falling down the country lists for health, longevity, and education for some time.
And our recent deference to authoritarian regimes over democratic allies is eroding our political power.
The US is undergoing a steep decline and a turnaround in the current divisive hyper-polarized political climate seems very unlikely.
The decline is being accelerated by the current political climate.
Quick note: according to Wikipedia (citing IMF, World Bank, etc) the US is #1 in GDP at ~$16 trillion, almost double China in the number two spot. We are number 6 in PPP, but if we're talking economic output I would argue the former is more relevant.
- GDP [0]
- Total wealth [1]
- Military
- Demographics (US - growing, China - aging and shrinking)
- Soft power
[0] https://tradingeconomics.com/
[1] [https://www.ubs.com/global/en/family-office-uhnw/reports/glo...]
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