As reported in The Nation (on September 1), Igor Panarin, a professor at the Russian foreign ministry's diplomatic academy, has predicted that the United States of America will cease to exist in July 2010". He has further stated "Barack Obama has the mentality of a social worker: He talks well but he has never managed anything. He will lead the US to a crash". Why does the professor think so? Because "The US debt has multiplied seven times in 11 years. Under Gorbachev, the Soviet debt had increased only by a factor of five". -S.R.H. HASHMI, Karachi, via e-mail, September 1.