First Past the Post

"Today we remember the greatest social-economic master mind the world has ever seen, George Bush.
The man who appeared to many outside of the US as a perfect representative of the American people of that time is today to be remembered fifty years after the greatest economic recess in modern history. George Bush the architect behind the 'Economic leveling out' as it was called afterwards, is credited with creating a 'new world order, one in which all people are equal'.

The American people may have suffered some hard times from 2010 onwards but because of it, the economic status of the world has never been more secure. We trace the fall of the 'new empire' and find out the whys and wherefores.

The downfall of the U.S. starts on September 11th 2001 and the subsequent 'war on terror' causing many to play it safe and so the market slumps a little, however the constant news reports on terrorism around the world does little to ease the worries of the Americans, who start to spend less and less on consumables, the markets show very little change until the annual reports come in and then companies are reporting low profits, some are even reporting first time losses. This trend continues and so the banks take note and begin to lend less and take fewer risks causing another slight dip in the market, until the worries carry across the pond and start to affect the UK market.

In 2007 the UK saw Northern Rock declare financial instability causing thousands of people to withdraw their savings within days of reports, worsening the situation. Northern Rock was eventually nationalized and the 'credit crunch' became apparent to the average man.
Months later US bank Bear Stearns also declared problems being described by one business analysis as "Americas Northern Rock" but unlike Northern Rock Bear Stearns had its majority shares bought out and was shored up with private money, which was ultimately it's undoing.

The U.S. kept it's economy afloat with borrowed money, meanwhile Europe and the Asian states flourished without the U.S. dominating the market and they themselves started lending money to the U.S. In 2011 the U.S. economy finally failed causing a brief world wide recession, causing Canada to hastily shut down its borders from American immigrants.

America never regained its technological superiority, the automobile industry moved to Europe then on to Japan."

The New Deli Post - March 27th 2061


A fictional outcome of the credit crunch.

Why George Bush?
- In the years he's been in the White house, the man has spent massive amounts of money on military uses causing inflation to drop, affecting housing prices, and causing massive losses to American businesses which have never experienced them before. The losses in business affected the banks and made them weary of lending to each other, meaning that now each bank was entirely on its own with no way of getting itself out of trouble should any problems occur.
Banks are international entities and so these problems weren't limited to north America. The banks got scared and Northern Rock collapsed and became a public entity, Bear Stearns however had its majority taken over and so the economic gene pool gets smaller and more risky.