A rising euro threatens American dominance
A continuing fall in the dollar means a fall in the global purchasing power of all its foreign assistance, whether for humanitarian or military purposes
American Empire
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Is America’s golden age coming to an end? We look back at this year’s top story and how the ‘fall of Rome’ analogy is playing out in politics, economics and military commitments
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A burning issue
The most-read article on FT.com in 2007 was a report of a speech given in Washington by David Walker, the US comptroller general, in which he warned that the US was on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments. A few days after that speech, Mr Walker wrote an op-ed article for the Financial Times on the same topic.
The notion that the US’s global pre-eminence may be waning under the twin threats of decline at home and rising competition overseas has been a topic of debate throughout the year. Some of the FT’s articles are presented here, along with a discussion forum for you to have your say.
American dream hit by dollar’s decline
Migrant workers are choosing to move to Europe, Australia or Canada instead of the US in order to protect the purchasing power of the money they send home to their families, according to one of the world’s leading experts on remittances
Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned
The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon
David Walker: America risks the fate of Rome
Washington’s crisis-management approach to hard public policy choices is no longer prudent, writes David Walker
Gideon Rachman: America loses faith in imperialism
The flirtation with ideas of “empire” is over. As the imperial eagles are put back in the cupboard, the new challenge for Washington will be to avoid sliding straight from imperialism to isolationism. Yet it may in fact suit rising powers such as China tacitly to accept US leadership for some time to come, says Gideon Rachman
Related content and features
Economy
Recession looming in US housing-boom states
California and Florida – the biggest and fourth biggest state economies in the US – are either in recession or on the brink, many economists now believe
America’s inflated asset prices must fall
Washington policymakers need to stand back and let adjustment to global imbalances play out, yet the body politic is panicking, writes Stephen Roach
Adjustment or affliction?
As eurozone leaders fret and policymakers elsewhere assess the risks of fallout, the slide of the greenback is not reducing economic distortions as expected
US must live with being a bargain basement
If US consumers had saved more, spent less, and filled up their SUVs less often they might not be in this embarrassing condition, says John Gapper
US tops competitiveness index
The US came top of a league table of competitiveness, as its faltering economy was praised for the efficiency of its market and its ability to innovate
Dollar’s last lap
One of the most influential theories about exchange rates in the age of globalisation may be about to go up in smoke, writes Wolfgang Munchau
How to handle the falling dollar
Global financial stability needs a strategic approach – a task likely to fall to the next US administration, says Lawrence Summers
International affairs
Let us not lose faith in democracy
The problem with George W. Bush’s freedom agenda is not the idea of supporting democrats around the world but that the policy is now applied so selectively it appears delusional and hypocritical, writes Gideon Rachman
Time to bargain with Iran?
Diplomatic rapprochement and economic assistance for a renunciation of nuclear weapons and terrorism is not implausible, writes Niall Ferguson
A physicist’s theory
Since the Berlin Wall’s fall and the rupture over Iraq, the US and Europe have wondered how to refurbish their relationship, writes Philip Stephens
After the surge
The Americans are well aware of the fragility of security gains, without real political progress to back it up, says Gideon Rachman
The shifting world order
Amid US anxiety about intellectual property and product standards, it is beginning to feel as if globalisation belongs to Asia, says Philip Stephens
Chinese hacked into Pentagon
The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department
Politics and Society
America must work with others
The central purpose for US leadership is to begin to design an international system that puts great power co-operation rather than competition at its core, writes Philip Stephens
Federal action needed to rebuild US
The Senate is to consider creation of a bank that would address critical infrastructure needs, say Felix Rohatyn and Warren Rudman
Iraq sets a new trap for Democrats
If the party is to avoid accusations of wanting the US to fail, or of wishing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, it must tread carefully, writes Clive Crook
Home-baked immigration solutions
Ordinary Americans are fed up with inertia from Congress – so they are writing their own laws to fight illegal immigration, writes Patti Waldmeir.
Untying the immigration knot
It is in America’s interests to let most of its unlawful immigrants stay and put them on a proper legal footing, writes Clive Crook
