(The Politico - April 2009)  The U.S. Government sponsored a first-of-its-kind war game focused not on bullets and bombs - but on how hostile nations might seek to cripple the U.S. economy, a scenario made all the more real by the global financial crisis.

The two-day event near Ft. Meade, Maryland, had all the earmarks of a regular war game. Participants sat along a V-shaped set of desks beneath an enormous wall of video monitors displaying economic data. But instead of military brass plotting America’s defense, it was hedge-fund managers, professors and banking executives - all invited by the Pentagon to play out global scenarios that could shift the balance of power between the world’s leading economies.

Their efforts were carefully observed and recorded by uniformed military officers and members of the U.S. intelligence community. In the end, there was sobering news for the United States. The U.S. standing was significantly degraded by other savvier economic powers that considerably strengthened their position over the course of the war-game.

Click here for more information