Bigger and better

The draw down of natural capital and the counting of its consumption as income is a precursor to the draw down of the American industrial base and the funding of the concommitant American over-consumption as a measure of a healthy global economy. The former is a phenomenon in the real world, using real assets; the latter is a phenomenon in the financial world, using virtual assets. 

First the creativity flickers off, then the enterprises become assets to be sold off for the sake of funding unearned consumption as a way of distracting from the firesale. 

The Soviet empire was not the only great power to self-destruct voluntarily; the American empire is doing it bigger and better.