The Future
Posted on October 13, 2008
Peering through the glass darkly, it is hard to know what the future beholds.
Is the global collapse of the credit market, and the accompanying collapse of the stock market, a harbinger of bad things to come? Are we entering a truly dark period of global finance, a second great depression?
Or does the unprecedented cooperation of all of the world’s powers to combat this credit collapse foretell a more integrated global system, where cooperation replaces conflict?
What will the greatest threat to Western civilization be in the next ten years? Islamic jihadism, Russian and Chinese hostility or global warming?
Will the world wide internet foster in greater productivity or greater depravity?
Will the world be divided into two camps, those who believe in God (and believe fervently) and those who don’t? And will that division (should it occur) lead to greater conflicts?
Will America continue to lead the world as the lone military superpower? Or will the defense budget get squeezed by entitlement spending?
Does America truly have a limitless amount of money it can spend or are we getting awfully close to bankruptcy?
Can the world continue to afford America’s vast appetite for consumer spending or can it afford not to have American consumers buy up the world’s products?
Is the center of the financial world leaving New York and London and moving to Shanghai and Mumbai? Or will Asia’s internal difficulties continue to make it impossible for them to take a leading role in world affairs?
I would love to have our two Presidential candidates answer these questions. Maybe at the next debate.