The Black Tumult

The survival and revival power of the US economy, and US treasury securities in particular, he said, remained the safest bet in an uncertain world. American military and diplomatic clout, despite cutbacks, remained unmatched. And US politicians usually did the right thing in the end, despite themselves, because Americans insisted they should.

Saunders concluded: “At some point, the US will become ‘just another country’, like Britain, its sterling-and-empire days behind it. To a certain sort of flag-waver, and to a certain sort of anti-American, that will be as good as death. But given this patient’s habit of leaping up from the mortuary slab, I wouldn’t put pennies on its eyes quite yet.