bill bonner shows you in this essay some of where the empire has gone wrong and some of why its collapsing;

Our view, for the benefit of new readers, is that the U.S. went badly off the rails around 20 years ago.

Since then, by almost every measure, it has been slipping and sliding downward. In everything, from life expectancies to income to GDP growth to freedom… to marriage rates and church attendance… America has lost ground.

Here’s the latest from Wolf Street:

The global share of US-dollar-denominated exchange reserves dropped to 59.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the IMF’s COFER data released [at the end of March]. This matched the 25-year low of 1995. These foreign exchange reserves are Treasury securities, US corporate bonds, US mortgage-backed securities, US Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities, etc. held by foreign central banks.

Since 2014, the dollar’s share has dropped by 7 full percentage points, from 66% to 59%, on average 1 percentage point per year. At this rate, the dollar’s share would fall below 50% over the next decade.

On the global stage, in other words, the role of the U.S. is in decline.

Politically Correct Approach

But “declinism” has been, well, on the decline in academic circles. It suggests a moral failing… as if things might have turned out much differently had not people done stupid things.

“Risism,” on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable. Nothing negative or prejudicial about it.

Even the “fall” of Rome is now viewed not so much as a “fall” but a “transition.”........read more.......