An involuntary pull on the ‘brake handle’?

Having already considered the significance of the AIG bailout for the course of the financial crisis, David Lindorff concluded by noting that:

The good news is that, if the US economy collapses, the Pashtun farmer in northeastern Pakistan, the Iraqi shopkeeper in Fallujah, the Iranian worker in Tehran, and the peasant in Venezuela, will no longer have to worry about being bombed or having their children mowed down by a US helicopter gunship. The US would no longer have the funds to pay for such foreign wars. And because a collapse of the US consumer economy would also drag the rest of the world into a prolonged global slump, perhaps reminiscent of the 1930s, we might actually see a significant enough drop in carbon emissions from idled cars, factories and power plants that the global warming catastrophe that is threatening us all will be significantly delayed, giving humanity time to come up with a serious long-term response.

A collapse means the 'indispensible nation' will have received its comeuppance and that much of the world might live a little easier, freer and safer after the crisis takes its toll on America's empire.