Unsustainable levels of personal and corporate debt cause widespread panic and financial failures. The US withdraws inward. New extremist political parties emerge. As worldwide resources grow scarcer, the US covets Canada s oil, gas, water, timber and minerals. The US trade deficit soars and the value of the dollar falls sharply.
Manufacturing industries rebound as technology slows.
Impoverished Indian peasants and urban workers revolt against the ruling establishment, plunging the nation into a long, bloody civil war that spreads to Central America. Pollution makes Mexico City largely uninhabitable. United Europe challenges US hegemony in the Mideast and Latin America. Trade and political rivalry between the old allies grows. NATO withers away.