[LenS]

I read this book a couple of years back. Professor Kennedy did a fine analysis of past great powers. His analysis of the situation in the late 80's wasn't too bad either, especially for an academic exposed daily to colleagues who looked upon the US as the devil and the USSR as a saint. His examination of the USSR, Europe and Japan did point out the negative trends facing all three. I suspect that being an American, familiarity led him to overestimate US problems and to underestimate the impact of the other's problems. Of course, I had the advantage of reading his book after the USSR had collapsed, Japan had been mired in permanent recession, and the US had massively outgrown Europe.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #10

There is one thing in favor of Kennedy. U.S. is racking up a lot of debt, public debt, corporate debt, consumer debt(credit cards + morgages, etc). For now, economy is proped up by injection of extra credits, causing more debts to pile up. At some point, it would become unsustainable. Then America may have big problem, not the one created by other such as Osama or Saddam. If America survives this possible crisis, then we can safely say America still has many bright years ahead of them.