It is not just foreign problems as you say. Add the cost of Social Security for the baby boomers to the health care costs associated with their recent changes and the picture start to firm up. Look at the debt to GDP ratio but factor in the obvious flaw of government spending and the picture becomes even more clear. The Americans have always come back bigger and better than before, always. This time that may not be the case. When you look at the Chinese bubble, the guys holding trillions of US debt, their artificially low dollar, their shady accounting, and their bogus central banking then things become more curious by the minute.