Political Crossfire Forums

Ok shifting the debate a little to more contemporary grounds, one thing that's interesting about the rise of the US in the 20th century is that it basically boomed after World War II given both the rise of a massive military industry and the complete destruction of European/Asian economies. Many authors have argued that the US met a 1970s economic crisis as a result of increased production in these countries, Germany, Japan, etc. Interestingly though while people were fixated on Japan in the 1980s and even up until the 1990s political scientists were talking about Germany as the leader of a new power bloc against East and West, the attention has shifted to China. Japan has been facing a long period of stagnation while Germany is trying to bail out the rest of Europe.

This leads me to my point that China is booming now but will eventually get stuck the more it's integrated into global international economy. What happens when all the massive infrastructure and mining projects China is leading in Third World countries run into serious loan repayment problems? China's building shit everywhere but eventually there will be a problem with getting the money back, in addition to continuing long term US fiscal/deficit issues.

let's not forget that china has gone from a state-capitalist, planned economy to a quickly-approaching oligarchy a la russia in the 90s. they aren't headed for good territory.