Friday, November 23, 2007

"Reinventing Collapse" in the press

Shepherd Bliss, in a recent article published by EnergyBulletin.net - "The approaching holiday shopping spree as the U.S. economy declines" - mentions my Reinventing Collapse, based on an excerpt he received from my publisher:

A RUSSIAN COMPARES THE USA & USSR ECONOMIES

An article at www.energybulletin.net by a Russian now living in the US, recently came to my attention. In an excerpt from what has expanded into a book to be published next Spring Dmitry Orlov writes, “I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and this has given me insights to describe what the American collapse will look like.” Orlov’s pending book is entitled “Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects.” (www.newsociety.com) “Collapse” seems appropriate to describe where the US economy may be headed.

Orlov reveals various ingredients in the collapse of “modern military-industrial superpowers,” including a shortfall in the production of crude oil, foreign trade deficit, runaway military budget, and a ballooning foreign debt. He compares the USSR and the USA on these matters, adding the importance of “a humiliating military defeat.” Iraq may be to the USA what Afghanistan was to the USSR. Even with its $1 trillion military budget--larger than those of all the rest of the world combined--the US has been unable to subdue small, weak Iraq. Imagine what might happen with the much larger and more powerful Iran.


4 comments:

Nyc Labretš said...

Over the weekend Iran just refused to accept the US Dollar anymore for its oil.

It is receiving little or no attention at all in the American Press, they're all focused on the Fed cutting interest rates later on today.

If OPEC follows Iran's lead, which they just may, given how weak the Dollar has become, do you think the media will continue to ignore this story?

~Nyc

Dmitry Orlov said...

Nyc -

The American Press - or, what Joe Bageant in his "Deer Hunting with Jesus" rather perceptively calls "the American hologram," is all about making a profit for the advertisers and (in the case of the vestigial public media) the corporate underwriters. The last thing they want to do is put people off their Christmas shopping! As the economy heads downhill, people will start getting angry. Then maybe they will run some stories on how people are getting angrier - you know, about all these badly adjusted people who refuse to deal with the new economic reality - and how "we" can deal with them.

D2 said...

What effect -if any- would you expect to see from conversion to the AMERO?

D2

Dmitry Orlov said...

D2-

If the Amero is ever introduced, conspiracy theorists would have to find other things to talk about.

US nationals would probably still be barred from owning property in Mexico, and would have to pay 20-30% extra when buying property in some of the more populous provinces in Canada. These barriers, and immigration and employment controls, matter a lot more than what token of exchange is used. It will be just another fiat currency, which, in the long term, will be as worthless as all other fiat currencies.

Moreover, the trend in the world right now is to decouple from the US Dollar, not merge with it. Mexico is heading for a period of instability, caused by dwindling oil revenues caused by field depletion at Cantarell. Canada will at some point dump Harper in favor of someone who is less of a banana Republican, and less likely to surrender pieces of Canadian sovereignty to Washington. So the Amero plans might remain just that.