Just How Special Is America Hillary What Ails America

What Ails America?

OCTOBER 11, 2011

For our America issue, FP spoke to some of the country's leading figures, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, columnist Thomas Friedman and FP's resident provocateur, Steve Walt. But what does the rest of the world think of the ailing superpower? We asked six writers from around the globe to put the United States on the couch and tell us what it gets wrong -- and we certainly got an earful. From imperial hubris to gluttony to the failures of the education system, here's what they had to say about what's wrong with the state of the union today.

  • Imperial Hubris, by Ian Buruma
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  • The Presidency, by Sunil Khilnani
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  • Gluttony, by Vaclav Smil
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  • The Fed, by Heleen Mees
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  • The Dollar, by Fan Gan
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  • Education, by Mishaal Al Gergawi

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    Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

     SUBJECTS:
     

    MANEESH

    1:28 PM ET

    October 11, 2011

    Whts wrong with states of Union

    United States will recover all the problems and get over these problems. Today's millionaire march at new york of wall mart workers was very reasonable at these situations.

     

    WIZEBEE

    2:51 PM ET

    October 12, 2011

    Need for strong US economy

    Let us hope that the US economy does not goes into a slump. It is source of direct and indirect business and many small online businesses make money online via work outsourced from the US.

     

    WIZEBEE

    2:42 PM ET

    October 12, 2011

    US economy for the world

    Even the poor in America are better off than people in several other countries. The US is still the source of income for a large number of people who work from offshore destinations. For example, freelancers workonline mostly for Americans. It is good for the rest of the world if the US economy does not falter.