In the abstract world of American economists, equations run both ways; they believe that by changing the sign of a variable from plus to minus or from minus to plus or the price and quantity of x or y, the direction of historical movement can be reversed.

The historical record suggests that the transition to to a new hegemon has always been attended by what I have elsewhere called hegemonic war.

The clustering of technological innovation in time and space helps explain both the uneven growth among nations and the rise and decline of hegemonic powers.

The world economy diffuses rather than concentrates wealth.

A prolonged and massive increase in aggregate wealth per capita has taken place over several centuries.

The opposing tendencies of concentration and spread are of little consequence in the liberal model of political economy.

In short, the elimination of the financial legacy of Reaganomics could force the United States to make some exceptionally difficult choices indeed.