“Obama” is just a re-branded version of the same old America. Nothing substantial has changed since the Bush Administration except the marketing emphasis. The “diplomacy” with Iran was, after all, started by Condi Rice. Any US “weakness” is just part of the Obama marketing campaign for a his New-America product that is so popular with the rest of the world.

America’s mission is to become the Hobbesian global sovereign through the combination of its overwelming military supremacy and its domination of global financial capitalism. And it is amazingly close to achieving this goal. Disregarding Russia which is a debatable case, most other countries on earth are US client states. Iran and North Korea are the only regional level powers left outside the US orbit. Venezuela, Cuba, and Syria and a few others are minor states that will soon fall. Iran will either be attacked or it will change regimes by internal pressure; most likely the former. By 2020, all global pockets of resistance will be wiped up and the US will reign as the global monarch.

Seen in this light, the decline in US economic output is understandable. Sovereigns are not judged by how much they produce; they are judged by how well they keep the peace and administer justice. Sovereigns are parasitical in the sense that their subjects must support them. When America achieves official sovereign status the rest of the world will be expected to pay tribute (like many already do through treasury purchases) so that the sovereign’s “court” (US citizens) will not have to worry about producing wealth but can concentrate full time on setting cultural and artistic fashions for the rest of the world.