"... actually allowing our civilization to fall over the edge would likely prove counterproductive, otherwise they'd have pushed it over long ago."

I suspect you're assuming great intelligence among the greedy manipulators. People who are always thinking about how to fleece someone else, and only think of themselves are basically criminal-minded. Many criminals succeed, but most of them don't. Even the more intelligent ones seem to always overlook some crucial facet of the situation. And if America goes belly-up, I think it will be due to something happening that they didn't expect, with someone or some group attempting to grab the equivalent of an unbalanced tray falling off a table edge and missing it. Then I think there will be a severe domino effect.

Stock market levels are neither a cause nor a control, they are only indicators of faith.

"When and if a collapse comes, it may truly be global."

There's no 'maybe' about it. The Great Depression was worldwide then. And there is far more interaction between countries now than there was then.

A major depression here would probably be catastropic. But imagine the Third World countries that are America's trained dogs, the ones that we feed.

I no longer have TV, and don't take a newspaper. I think they both warp one's thinking, because the information being fed to us is what they want us to hear/know, and you know damned well that it isn't likely to be the truth. I go more by the EFFECTS.

Sue