Twilight of the United States?

We've been reading quite a bit recently about the U.S.S.R. Morbid curiosity? Perhaps, dear Reader, but not without an ulterior motive: Soviet Russia was the last major, industrialised nation to have a catastrophic meltdown. That's not to say we necessarily expect such a thing to happen here... but it's wishful thinking to say 'it can't happen' in the United States, or the United Kingdom, or the Eurozone, et cetera.

Such comparisons are not without their merit, especially as the government spending of the United States and United Kingdom are becoming ever-larger percentages of those nations' respective national economies. Large percentages of government spending in GDP are hallmarks of socialism... but if the government is the entirety of the economy, that's soviet socialism.

This potential transition is seen in moves like the U.K. nationalising the Royal Bank of Scotland, or the U.S. taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Quantitative easing and monetisation of debt can bee seen as further steps towards sovietism. Perhaps the final nail in that coffin is the comment by Dmitry Orlov, that President Obama is America's Gorbachev. Mr. Orlov is a smart man, and he saw the post-Soviet collapse first-hand. We take him seriously.