If the spread of the credit crisis contagion has proved anything to us, it is that the other major economies of the world have not decoupled from the US economy. But if the crisis has proved anything to those other major economies, it is that they must now decouple from the US economy. It would be naive, then, to expect anything but a steady and deliberate global re-alignment in financial power, with the US becoming increasingly marginalized in world affairs as a result.
The US government has failed to provide leadership in addressing the most pressing issue of our time - Climate Change - preferring instead to spend trillions of dollars on quixotic escapades chasing after poorly educated, brainwashed religious extremists in failed states that are all but irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Now, added to this complete missing of the point, the recklessness of the worship of runaway greed has led the entire world down the wrong track. Nations will be scrambling to sever the tethers that tie them to what they see as a sinking ship.