Guest, petr: I had a message substantially like yours but my computer hiccuped or the website went down at just the wrong time. I think the US will yield power when it can no longer afford it. I think that in the normal course of things this is to be expected regardless of who is President, although of course an internationally astute US leader could prolong US power substantially by assuring US respect and not spendthrifting the economy.

I think historically speaking the most influential 'powers' were the Romans and the British. I think one could argue that the US is an extension in time of the British.

There are some nice recordings of George Benard Shaw, who lived until 1951 and apparently liked to wax avuncular before radio microphones. He made some comments about the vast quantities of 'brown' peoples being governed by the English and how some day the colonial 'tail' would inevitably 'wag the dog'. I don't know if that is to what akenaton is referring. But capitalism wise, that is what we may be seeing, and from a global point of view, it's past time.