Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog [10],
By this measure, the U.S. scores very poorly: 4 out of a possible 5 on the Fragility Index.
"For countries, fragility has five principal sources: a centralized governing system, an undiversified economy, excessive debt and leverage, a lack of political variability, and no history of surviving past shocks. Applying these criteria, the world map looks a lot different. Disorderly regimes come out as safer bets than commonly thought, and seemingly placid states turn out to be ticking time bombs."
1. Highly centralized power structure/governance: yes. Apologists can claim that government is decentralized via state and local governments, but this ignores the reality that virtually every policy of any importance is set in Washington by a relative handful of politicos, lobbyists and technocrats of the Deep State.2. Undiversified economy: no. Despite the corrosive and venal dominance of the state, Wall Street/bank finance and the unproductive bubble-blowing FIRE economy (finance, insurance, real estate), the U.S. economy remains diverse.3. Excessive debt and leverage: yes. One glance at this chart says it all:Breaking Bad (Debt) [13]4. Lack of political variability: yes. Despite the frantic claims of partisans, the Demopublicans/Republicrats are in essence one ruling party with a few cosmetic differences to fire up their proles and partisans: If You Really Think It Matters Which Party Controls the Senate, Answer These Questions [14] (November 6, 2014)5. No history of surviving recent systemic shocks: yes. Some will argue that the U.S. weathered the global financial meltdown of 2008-09 and so that counts as a recent shock, but I would counter that the Status Quo's "fixes" were either half-measures that rewarded the banks for their perfidy or fake reforms that added costs and rewarded vested interests, i.e. were actually counter-productive: financial "reform," ObamaCare, etc.
Duct-taping a failing Status Quo together with borrowed trillions is not anti-fragility.

