because they won't be able to improve the living conditions of the Americans who voted for them.

It's easier to succeed George W Bush than any other US president. Even Nixon, who didn't finish his presidency, had nevertheless a good record, both domestically and in foreign affairs. Obama will be able to put the blame on his predecessor for one or two years, but eventually he'll be held accountable. As anyone who has (or had) an executive job knows it is easier to succeed an incompetent than an achiever. But the difficulties of this era are great. The economic pie is shrinking and Obama has promised larger shares to his base.

As Michelle Obama put it, “someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.” At least the lady knows what the present elections are about. Charles Reich’s term, “Consciousness III” (a relaxation from the condition of social solidarity and national mobilization that increasingly characterized the whole Western world from the 1860s, reaching a climax just after the world wars) is being brought to its conclusion.

Suppose the recession ends overnight. Global demand for oil rises sharply again (especially in China and India) and, as we know, supply becomes insufficient again. Oil prices skyrocket as in last July and the global economy stalls again.

In my opinion the coming crisis will be worse than the Depression. It won't hit as rapidly because economists have learnt from the past, but it will hit harder in the long run. In comparison with the Gay Nineties (double entendre intended) and the Audacious Aughts, the mood of this country circa 2016 will seem positively gothic. Once we get used to the permanently recessionary environment, the crumbling infrastructure, the Romanian social services, and the fact that every fourth person is a geriatric wheeling around with an oxygen tank, it will no longer be possible for even an American to believe that the good times must go on forever, or that "social justice" is an affordable and achievable end.

The world is in the birth pangs of the post peak oil era. If anyone here is a millionaire, then consider relocating to Canada/Caribbean.