Alternative Visions - The Decline of American Empire Part 1: The Funding Gap

Today's show takes up the topic of the American Empire in decline. It's the first summary preview of my forthcoming book, available in early September, "The Twilight of American Imperialism", Clarity Press, 2026. What does it mean to say 'decline'? What are the indicators? They're not just geopolitical—i.e. rise of BRICS, lost US wars, disputes with allies, fracturing military alliances, etc. All empires run on money and the American is running out of enough to fund the accelerating costs of empire. It is now experiencing an accelerating financial crisis as costs of Empire accelerate faster than revenues to fund it. As a result, the empire's Practices have begun to fail and its Institutions under-perform. The book covers the period 1992 through 2026, focusing in large part on Trump 2025-26 and policies now accelerating the decline. Today's show concludes by revisiting the crisis in the US Treasury market—the main means for debt financing of the Empire--emerging in recent weeks and explains how it is related to the main theme of the book.