US and the internet
 

Let's face it - it was great for the US when the internet was born and raised here - it singlehandedly caused an economic boom for us (sorry Clinton/Gore, but it wasn't you guys).

I think part of why the US has been coming back down to shit besides the real estate/mortgage crisis debacle is that with the rest of the world catching up to the US on internet adoption/usage (and even exceeding the US in some areas like mobile internet), it's the rest of the world coming up as much as it is the US coming down to level the playing field.

About the only thing we've got going for us now is that English is still a dominant worldwide language - once voice recognition and translation evolve to the point where it doesn't matter what language someone speaks - the listener can hear/see it in their own language, the US will be in trouble. China's booming enough as it is, but if the language barrier broke down and opened them up to the world more, there's no way the US can compete.

Yea the dollar is still ubiquitous, but its strength has never been shakier.