Warren Buffett’s extraordinary delusion about America

Before there was an America, before there was a Britain, before even Rome and Ancient Greece, there was Assyria.
For more than five centuries, the Assyrian empire was the wealthiest, strongest superpower in the world.
If you could go back thousands of years during the reign of Ashurbanipal and suggested even the possibility that the Assyrian Empire would decline (let alone cease to exist) you would have probably been executed.
The mere thought was heresy.
Of course, once empires reach their apogees they always assume that they’re entitled to the top spot forever.
But the historical record is filled with former superpowers who fall victim to their own narcissism. And yet the pattern continues to repeat.
Today is no different. The political and financial establishment in the Land of the Free refuses to acknowledge the obvious data evidencing America’s decline in wealth and power.
One of those members of the establishment is Warren Buffett, America’s self-appointed Minister of Economic Good Cheer.
With grandfatherly charm, Buffett always seems to find the silver lining.
And that’s certainly great – there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic.
But to anchor one’s optimism in this absurd notion of ‘once a superpower, always a superpower’ is absolutely nuts.

This post was published at Sovereign Man on March 2, 2016.