The US financial elite, along with that of the UK, is following its own dynamic, which is not likely to allow it to take the niceties of geopolitics into account unless it allows them to continue to earn 15%+ returns. The fact that they dominate the governments in their respective countries greatly increases the chance of social catastrophe. Until or unless these elites are sufficiently housebroken to work within a framework with needs other than their own this will remain the case.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."