Asian export economies amount to growth without real profit: they produce amassment of foreign currency and a final collapse. This time the implosion will be felt even on American tables: China's cereal production declined 8% since 1997, and Chinese rice production declined 4%. Yet demand is rising. Because water tables are being depleted, this trend is likely to continue.

The Chinese will have to import large amounts of cereal from, notably, the USA. They can afford it; they have two trillion dollars in US money. There will be a problem though. The US population will need all the cereals they can produce for themselves and to produce ethanol. If the USA accepts to sell to the Chinese the huge quantities of cereals they'll need, there will be food and ethanol shortages in the USA, at least for the poorest Americans, who will probably riot, steal, etc, like people do when they are desperate.

If the USA refuses to sell cereals to the Chinese, the poorest Chinese will starve. They'll probably riot, steal, etc. The Chinese government will pressure the US by selling the trillions of dollars it owns, which will dramatically decrease the value of the dollar. It will be as if everyone had a million dollars but supermarket shelves were empty. It will be the end of the dollar as an international currency, and eventually the end of America's ability to pay for its imports and attract foreign capital. I suppose that the American leaders will choose to sell to the Chinese. They'll have to manage food shortages, and turn the USA into an authoritarian state. They can do it.

The USA can't win wars anymore. The best it can hope to achieve is disruption of other countries.

We are at the end of economic growth because of fossil fuel depletion and the food crisis. The situation will be obvious to everyone when the global economy recovers a little from the present depression during the next few years or so, but rising energy prices stifle the recovery.

France and the UK are headed for three million unemployed people each. The demographic collapse, which is slow, will do little to alleviate such massive levels of unemployment. We can grow oil (albeit at a high price). Solar energy looks like a good idea too, but not in space; nobody will be able to finance power stations in space or on the Moon. There will still be much energy available decades after peak oil, but it will be expensive. Economic growth is behind us.

I suspect that the USA and Europe will have to endure immigration, millions of people fleeing famine and misery, but there won't be many jobs available for the immigrants. When millions are unemployed and standards of living are falling, immigrants are unwelcome. That will still be true even if the populations of North America and Europe in 2020 and beyond are largely made up of yesterday's Third World immigrants and their descendents.

"Limits to Growth" predictions have been fairly accurate

Nobody knows what the transition from a society of affluence towards a society of hardship will beget. I expect liberalism to go for good.