Stop betting against America – a wealth of common sense

There’s this guy on Twitter Paul Fairywho creates these threads using old newspaper clippings to show that what we worry about today is the same thing people have been worrying about for decades.

There was one called A Brief History of Us raising a generation of wimps. Every older generation thinks this way (and will always think this way… it’s called progress).

There was also a short story no one wants to work anymore.

And my most recent favorite: A Short Story America is in decline and so is the Roman Empire.

There are plenty of recent examples of this, but here’s one from 1973:

It was in 1951:

And until 1917:

This was just a taste, but you get the idea.

Throughout my life, people have predicted things like the collapse of the dollar, the government debt crisis, and the end of America as we know it.

In the 1980s, Japan intended to overthrow the United States as a world power. In 2000 it was China.

I do not completely reject the idea that other world powers will emerge. I just think it’s a little too early to dance on the grave of the United States, especially as an economic powerhouse.

The dollar remains the world’s reserve currency and has actually strengthened since the global financial crisis:

Currencies are always and forever cyclical, but some were sure the dollar would collapse after the 2008 crisis. NO.

The U.S. economy was described as the cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry basket for much of the 2010s, while other developed and emerging economies faced serious problems.

It would also be difficult to argue that any country has weathered the pandemic as well as ours.

The US economy is actually in better place than the IMF predicted in 2019 before the pandemic (via WSJ):

The rest of the world is in a worse economic situation.

The United States currently also has the lowest inflation in the G7 (via CEA):

The American economy has therefore recorded higher growth and lower inflation than the rest of the developed countries.

During the worst inflation in over 40 years, wages keep pace with prices:

In fact, we are returning to the pre-pandemic wage growth trend (via Arin Dube)

Plus, Americans just experienced their largest three-year increase in wealth whenevergoing back to 1989:

According to Bloomberg:

Median inflation-adjusted net worth increased 37% to $192,900 from 2019 to 2022, according to Wednesday’s Federal Reserve survey of consumer finances. This marked the largest three-year increase in data since 1989 it was more than twice the size of the next largest in history– said the Fed.

Read it again. We just had the biggest three-year jump in wealth in this country, and it was more than twice as large as the next biggest gain in history.

Look, America is not bulletproof.

We have many problems in this country.

We have always had problems and we will certainly have more in the future.

Perhaps one day our pride will overcome us.

But to those who predict the end of the American empire, I say: good luck betting on America.

It has always been loss-making and I don’t think that will change anytime soon.

Michael and I talked about the American empire and much more in this week’s Animal Spirits video:

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Further reading:
Why I maintain an attitude towards the United States of America

Now here’s what I’ve been reading lately:

Books:

Video:

¹I will have more to say