If the US crashes and burns, it will be because the rest of the world does too. Scenarios in which the US crashes in relation to the rest of the world are fantasy. It will happen someday, just as someone watching the assassination of Julius Caesar could have extrapolated from that the fall of the Roman Empire. Except that person would have waited hundreds of years to see it happen. Which, in relation to the time horizon of your investments, ain't relevant.
We're talking about severe contraction, not end of world, ie armageddon. I'm glad to have cleared that up for you.
Man you're stupid. Please explain how this doesn't amount to an economic version of Armageddon: Indebted labor will rise from the ashes of the greatest credit bust in US history. People will literally be working just for food, water and shelter. I'll wait 'til Hell freezes over.
Here read all about it. Btw, check out the paragraph that suggests that China per capita income is $7200 compared to $44k in the US. John http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity
Per capita is obviously not the same as the gross sum. Obviously. And, all your article asserts is another obvious thing: PPP is an approximation. As is exchange rate parity, of course. However, if you have a currency that has been deliberately manipulated to an absurdly low level, as is the case with the remnimbi/yuan, then using PPP is going to be a much closer approximation of reality than using exchange rate parity. The article cites Japan as an example of the opposite extreme, which is telling. The difference between exchange and purchasing power parity equivalents of GDP between the US and Japan is many times smaller than the difference between the US and China using the two different measures, because of the deliberate mercantilist policy followed by China.
The "empire" will continue in it's new form. No, oversized nose, that's not what an armageddon is. Will be far from it. In fact, the rich will get even richer.