End of the USA era

[forza_che]

I'm writing an article for an independent newspaper I help to produce and was wondering if anyone could help me in finding statistics.

I'm looking for evidence of decreasing support for America in the world and also of greater financial independence of countries previously heavily tied to the US (ie. South America)

Anything on the downward spiral of the American economy would also be appreciated.

Thanks

[Phalanx]

Here's one on the growing wealth disparity in the U.S.:

Article (http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2003/03may/may03interviewsbernstein.html)

Here's one concerning Americas' loss of support in Latin America:

BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4861320.stm)

The first one is three years old, but it's even more relevant now. The economy is officially growing at around 6% annually (my estimate) but all of the growth is headed towards the top 10%.