The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy. Manufacturing will have closed the labour gap with China in a clutch of key industries. The current account might even be in surplus.
Yes, part of our retention of the top spot may be because the rest of the world screws up worse than we are, but so what? Did we emerge from World War II with about half the world's GDP within our borders because we mastered business models better than anyone else? No, the rest of the world was bombed and spent into oblivion leaving us the last man standing. And it was a dominance that laid the seeds for our 1970s decline as our dominant industries failed to compete even as the rest of the world recovered and rebuilt from the devastation of World War II.
And if we could recover our leading role after the dismal 1970s revealed how far we'd sunk, we can recover now when the mantra of global competition is strong in our national psychology.
Number one is number one. There are no style points involved.
