The Decline of the American Empire

As my wife will readily attest, I've been predicting the decline (if not outright collapse) of the United States (aka "the American Empire" or "the Great Experiment") by the year 2020. Depending on other world events (and on the precise definition of "decline" or "collapse"), I believe that this could happen much sooner but regardless no later than 2030. This position has been variously supported--either directly or indirectly--by many others, including Warren Buffett, John Sculley, and ... Igor Panarin, a Russian academic who made news recently by predicting the collapse of the U.S. by 2010.

My thoughts have been primarily focused on basic private concerns like, "if the U.S. is indeed collapsing, where should I raise my kids in order to position them (and their kids) for success in the new world order?" However, Panarin understandably takes a much more academic approach, and he even predicts how the U.S. will ultimately be divided among the remaining world powers.

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Given the fundamental economic breakdown in the U.S., the renewed (ongoing/heighened) tensions in the Middle East and India/Pakistan, and a rookie administration about to take over the White House, who knows what the next couple of years will bring? I often wonder what it would've been like to live in Rome (or in the outskirts of the Roman Empire) in the middle of the 5th century.