Shrinking of the Bubble Empire

Source: Getty Images

Tuesday, September 8th, 2026

Bill Bonner, from Poitou, France

We could do tremendous good for ourselves by just not trading with countries. We lose with Mexico $195 billion a year. They have nothing that we have to have, I mean. Hot tamales, tomatoes, a couple of things

—POTUS

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The UN just voted to make Africa bigger. The Guardian:

The United Nations has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.

At the session, 164 countries voted in favour of the resolution. Only the US voted no, with its representative saying the resolution was “superfluous”. There were six abstentions.

The Mercator world map took the round globe and showed it in two dimensions. It did so by holding fast to the size of the land mass near the equator but stretching out Canada, Greenland and Russia to make them appear much bigger. Sailors understood the trick of it; they relied on it to get to Bermuda rather than Boston.

The new map is more ‘realistic.’ Greenland no longer pretends to be the same size as Africa. But the world is not infinitely big. So, if Africa is larger, the rest of the world must be relatively smaller. Even the US, comfortably seated between the hot tamales and the Canooks’ maple syrup, must be somewhat diminished. That, by our reckoning, is the most significant geo-political trend of our time — the deflation of the Bubble Empire.

Historians are always looking for hinges — pivot points, where trends change and doors open. Helena Cobban thought she heard the squeak of a hinge point last week, coming from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Iranian Pres. Masoud Pezeshkian was conferring with the presidents of China, Russia, and India, and the heads of state and government of six other Asian states, at the 25th anniversary meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO.)

While the US was trying to preserve an old world, with an out-size USA, a huge, new world was being born, on the other side of the planet. Tout le monde was there. The heads of state of the largest countries on Earth, covering the Eastern European steppes to the Sea of Japan, and from the Arctic down to Ceylon.

What were they up to? Pres. Xi:

Hegemonism, unilateralism and protectionism are resurging against historical trends. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of the world do not condone power politics, conflict and confrontation, or isolation and backwardness. What they want instead is to hold a place on the world stage through national development and international cooperation. In recent years, the rise of the Global South is driving a profound shift in the international balance of power. The trend toward a multipolar world is irreversible...

This was another way of saying that America’s days as the world’s only big shot are over. This SCO group represents far more people and a much greater landmass than the US and NATO.

Good?

Bad?

Who knows? But the map changes...and the shrinking of the Bubble Empire continues. London Daily:

After 108 Years: Moody’s Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating

Moody’s has downgraded the United States’ credit rating from the highest level (AAA) to one notch below, Aa1. The reasons cited for the downgrade include weak fiscal management in Washington, massive deficits, and a sharp rise in interest payments on the national debt, which has reached approximately $36 trillion. For the first time in history, the United States no longer holds the highest credit rating from all three major agencies, after Fitch and S&P also issued downgrades in the past.

People have been warning about the decline of the US ever since John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence. These ‘declinists’ have been so wrong for so long that many historians snarl or chuckle when they appear in public.

Charles Krauthammer once commented on the ‘decline,’ writing that if Rome had gone down at this rate, ‘you’d be reading this column in Latin.’ But Krauthammer supported the war against Iraq — perhaps the loudest hinge in the whole raspy orchestra. Then, he died in 2018...before the sounds of decline had become deafening.

No other country ever garrisoned so much of the globe as the US, with 750 overseas bases. No other country ever spent so much on military force, either...with a budget currently over $1 trillion...and set to rise to $1.5 trillion next year. No other country dominated the world financially and economically as did the post-WWII US. And no other country ever exported so much of its own dream — movies, books, ideas, language, fashion...you name it.

The empire was built by (mostly) honest trade, investment, and hard work. Then it was extended and exaggerated — on bubble credit...from fake dollars lent out at fake rates. After the introduction of the fake dollar in 1971, the bubble expanded while practically all of the measures of a free and prosperous society turned down.

America’s Golden Age may already be past tense. The bubble is losing air. American military power can’t plug the leaks. It can bomb and kill. But it can’t make the foreigners bend to its will.

Its forward bases...and giant WWII era aircraft carriers...have become liabilities — targets for local bomb throwers. The empire becomes less creditworthy…and rivals get together in places we’ve never heard of to plot against us.

Even the map betrays us.

Regards,

Bill Bonner