I do not wish to dispute the assertion of Charles Krauthammer that good economic times will not last forever (Op-Ed, Dec. 22). After all, the fluctuations of the business cycle, with an occasional boom and bust, are well known to anyone who has seriously studied our economic history.
But Krauthammer’s historical view that the gap in power between the U.S. and its nearest rival is greater now than any similar comparison in the last 500 years is historically inaccurate.
One only has to look at the period after World War II to see how dominant the United States was economically and militarily. Traditional powers such as the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Germany and Japan were devastated by World War II, and their economies were in ruins.
Compared to the rest of the world, the United States by the late 1940s made 42 percent of the world’s income, produced 50 percent of the manufactured goods, made 57 percent of the steel, pumped 62 percent of the oil and assembled 80 percent of the automobiles. At one point in 1945 unemployment was a measly 1.9 percent, and from 1946 to 1948 it was slightly under 4 percent.
Militarily, no nation could seriously threaten the United States immediately after World War II since it was the only nation that possessed the atomic bomb.
