ALL EMPIRES RISE AND FALL ... OURS IS NO EXCEPTION

I am going to use a simple analogy throughout this book to tell the story of global economic development. Imagine each of the world's nations to be a single individual at the stage of life corresponding to their phase of economic development. We, the United States of America, would be a strong man about forty-five years of age, named Johnny ...

Cast of Characters:

Johnny United States of America
Karl Germany
Nicholas France
Oliver England
Alexander Russia
Wojciech Poland
Minjoon South Korea
Nguyen Vietnam
Hiroto Japan
Chen China
Frank Confederate South (prior to the
United States Civil War)
David Israel
Johnny's wife Saudi Arabia
"The Bank" International Banking Cartel
Ashish India
Carlos Brazil
Mehmet Turkey
Laszlo Hungary
Czech Czechoslovakia
Mohammed Tunisia
Hassan Egypt
Ali Libya
Malik Pakistan

Johnny's mother and father had immigrated to Canada from the Old World, to seek a better life for themselves. Johnny's father always had his eye on the United States. He was a physician and had spent five years of his life serving internship and residency in the field of internal medicine in five different locations in the United States.

Johnny's father grew up during the war and lived at a subsistence level during those years, as did much of the developing world. So Johnny's father jumped from one residency training program to another, five times in five years, because the next program offered a few dollars more pay per year.

Then Johnny's mother became pregnant with him. With Johnny's mother nine months pregnant, his mother and father legally crossed the border from Windsor, Ontario in Canada, to Detroit, Michigan. They stayed at the cheapest motel they could find on Woodward Avenue, the Oak Motel, for six dollars per night. Three days later, on August 7, 1966, Johnny was born (Birth of the United States of America on July 4, 1776).

Johnny had an idyllic childhood. When he was just three years old, his mother took him to the park one hot summer day. Johnny saw some kids who were older than him playing with a ball. He couldn't speak yet, but he knew he wanted that ball. So he simply walked up to one of the boys who had the ball, pushed him down, and took it. From that day on, Johnny knew he was special, and he learned that brute force wins the day.

Johnny grew to be big and strong. He was the tallest boy in his class throughout elementary school. He was also one of the brightest. But Johnny also had more than his share of fights with other children. The other children teased him because of his immigrant heritage and he kept trying to prove himself to them. But deep down inside, Johnny knew he was gifted and had a special role to play on the stage of life (Manifest Destiny — the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent and spread Western civilization throughout the New World).

When Johnny was in third grade, he got into a big fight during recess with another boy, Frank, who was in the fifth grade (American Civil War). All the kids circled around Johnny and Frank and began shouting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The two boys took a few swings at each other, then grabbed each other and fell to the ground. Johnny had been taking wrestling lessons and was able to pin Frank down to the ground. Johnny sat on top of Frank and could have hurt him badly, but then decided to let Frank go.

By that time, the teacher on recess duty had arrived to see what was happening, and she was shocked. She promptly took both boys by the wrist and marched them down to the principal's office. From that day on, Johnny became the hero of his school.

Johnny was blessed with loving parents, siblings, and relatives, and he had the good fortune to go to the best schools in town. He was an excellent student, a gifted athlete, and a talented trumpet player in the school band and orchestra. He was voted Most Outstanding Boy of the ninth grade at his school.

In his junior year of high school, Johnny won First Prize in the annual science competition with his original research on atomic physics (Atomic Bomb). By the time he came of age, he was the strongest young man in the neighborhood (The United States becomes the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth). Whenever anybody needed help, Johnny would gladly oblige.

When Johnny was just twenty-five years old, he learned that his dear friends in the next neighborhood, Karl, Nicholas, Oliver and others in that circle, had a terrible falling out. It seems each one yearned to be the "king of the hill" and could not bear to see another in charge of the neighborhood.

The whole situation quickly escalated and led to a huge brawl (World War II). Karl was the instigator of the brawl and most everybody else was trying to defend himself against the strong and powerful Karl. Some would even say Karl was a megalomaniac (Nazi Germany).

All of the townspeople began to gather around this incredible spectacle. Everybody in town thought that these young men would end up destroying each other. Karl began his reign of terror by first picking on the weakest of the bunch, Wojciech, and giving him a good old-fashioned beating (German invasion of Poland in 1939). Everybody knew that Wojciech was simply no match for the stronger, ruthless Karl. Beaten down and bruised, poor Wojciech ran home crying.

Then Karl set his sights on Nicholas and Oliver. He pushed Nicholas to the ground. Nicholas got back on his feet and put up a good fight. But the stronger Karl beat him into submission. Karl and Oliver got into skirmishes, too. But Oliver had special talent in the field of aerial acrobatics, so Oliver managed to escape Karl's powerful knockout punches. Then there was David. Karl was much bigger and stronger than David and he perpetually teased him and beat him up (Holocaust).

In the neighboring town, a young man named Alexander was just twenty years old and was also coming of age. He was the leader of his neighborhood gang and heard about horrible Karl. Alexander decided to investigate for himself. Alexander saw Karl in the street one day, and went right up to his face and said, "If you think you're a real man, then...