An unusual theory from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of The Telegraph: World power is swinging back to America but not because of arms or leadership and in spite of global depression.
Here's his five reasons:
1. Energy independence (already up to 72%) because of fracking and gas-from-shale.
2. The US is the only advanced nation with fertility above 2.0
3. China is losing its wage advantage. (5 examples of big companies coming back to the US).
4. The exchange rate now favours exports that will out-compete the euro, yen and renminbi.
5. The European soap opera has shown why it matters that America is a genuine nation with shared language, working institutions and a functioning central bank.
Do you agree?
A related analysis from Stratfor, The Geopolitics of the United States. Geography and navigable river systems create the conditions for a great nation. Canada has the Saint Lawrence and Great Lakes system to anchor a nation but much of Canada's middle drains into the remote Arctic. The West Coast could easily be tacked onto the strip of America that fronts on the Pacific. (As a Canadian I'm mindful of the boundary once being at the mouth of the Columbia instead of the Fraser. California and Oregon could have thrown their lot in with us.)