US Empire Like Spanish Empire?... William Hawkins: "Yet, Spanish leaders were deluded by a sense of false prosperity. This is testified by the statement of a prominent official, Alfonso Nunez de Castro in 1675: “Let London manufacture those fine fabrics of hers to her heart's content; let Holland her chambrays; Florence her cloth; the Indies their beaver and vicuna; Milan her brocade, Italy and Flanders their linens...so long as our capital can enjoy them; the only thing it proves is that all nations train their journeymen for Madrid, and that Madrid is the queen of Parliaments, for all the world serves her and she serves nobody.” A few years later, the Madrid government was bankrupt. The Spanish nobleman had foolishly elevated consumption, a use for wealth, above production, the creation of wealth... Today, the American “empire” is also trying to consume more than it produces... Americans must learn ... from the Spanish experience ... and take corrective action while they still can."... http://www.americaneconomicalert.org/view_art.asp?Prod_ID=1086 (4*)