Professor Elam

So we moved from the Portugese who were the first to sail round the world in 1519-22 (no wonder look where portugal is situated) to the Dutch to the Spanish to the English and French to America and then to well gee we are still headed west to 

Japan which had its day or decade in the 1980s to Korea Philipines Singapore in the 1990s and now China

China is now posed to become the world's largest auto producer.   that is pretty amazing considering Richard Nixon just re discovered the place in the 1970s. Indeed the decision was made to arrive in China in 707s as I recall, it was thought that the large 747 was just too ostentatious and intimidating for the Chinese given there, well, meager industrial status at the time. Who's laughing now?

The story is as simple as the old fable about the animals that saved for the winter versus those that did not. The Chinese built a manufacturing economy while the US kidded itself that a service economy was just as good. American spent the 1990s gambling away on their future from the stock market to state sponsored lottery games. The dot.coms are just another version of that gamble. Here is San Antonio the conversion of Kelly AFB to Kelly USA has done  a whole lot more for the economy than the Alamodome. For that matter so have the Spurs, because the Spurs are a reasonable franchise that San Antonio can support. Kelly is a reasonable re build center that San Antonio supports well. 

Now the US is a debtor nation and the Chinese are holding the IOUs. Will borrowing money from the Chinese to extend a River Project in San Antonio kick start the economy here, oh please.