German finance minister Peer Steinbrück, has warned that the United States will lose its superpower status in the wake of the financial crisis.

The world, he says, will become multipolar and will never be the same again.

Of course, it's more than just the financial crisis created by the Bush administration. the last eight eight years have been pretty bad for the international standing of the US, everything from Abu Ghraib to Bear Stearns. Once again, the Bush administration's legacy. It's a point taken up by Roger Cohen in the International Herald Tribune.

The only forward, he says, is through connectedness and working with other countries.

"To persist with a philosophy Grounded in America's separateness rather than its connectedness would be devastating at a time when the country faces two wars, a financial collapse unseen since 1929, commodity inflation, a huge transfer of resources to the Middle East, and the imperative to develop new sources of energy. Enough is enough."