Marc Chandler, who is a higher regarded contributor to Seeking Alpha wrote Making Sense of the Dollar

For a take on the actual advantages of the American economy and it global position see George Friedman's The Next Hundred Years

Cullen Roche should be read by a lot of people. But to sum up his argument in the most simple language: it is absurd to compare the debt of a state like the USA with a family and its debt/credit.