Tom Friedman (NYT) article: The Fat Lady Has Sung

I like the optimism in this article -- he's not saying that it is the end of the American Empire (necessarily), just that we are entering some lean years and need to act accordingly.

This article supports my philosophy of the cycle of lean and flush times. Lean years are healthy (when viewed properly) because they force prioritizing and pruning and focusing on what is most important. The flush years can then be times to experiment, to take long-odds bets with high potential payoffs, and to give people time to be creative and daydream. Some of those experiments then become the core, long term goals at the next lean time, and so on and so on.

Seven years of plenty followed by seven years of drought.