It’s far more common to hear speculation about the U.S. absorbing or invading Canada.

Now, a former KGB analyst, Igor Panarin, is predicting based on classified information that the financial crisis in the U.S. will eventually result in the country breaking up into six pieces by 2010.

He calls U.S. foreign debt a “pyramid scheme,” and notes that people laughed at Emmanuel Todd when he predicted the fall of the Soviet Union 15 years in advance.

In an interview earlier this year Panarin said,

The dollar isn’t secured by anything. The country’s foreign debt has grown like an avalanche; this is a pyramid, which has to collapse.

His theory is gaining credbility after being covered this week by the Wall Street Journal.  He predicts a sharp split along ethnic/cultural lines, which will then be exploited by foreign powers:

• The Californian Republic will be  under Chinese influence
• The Texas Republic will be predominantly Hispanic states that fall under Mexican influence
• Atlantic America and the eastern seaboard may join the E.U.
• Hawaii will be a protectorate of Japan or China
• Russia will finally get Alaska, much to Pallin’s chagrin
• The Central North American Republic will be northern states such as Illinois that will go to Canada

Crawford Kilian of The Hook points out some of the challenges that this scenario could create for us in Canada:

• do we inherit the Congressional representatives and senators of our new domain?
• does Stephen Harper appoint the senators while the representatives run for Parliament?
• are millions of these new Canadians entitled to healthcare?
• do we inherit the nuclear missiles still sleeping in their North Dakota silos?
• will we have to pay for bilingual signage at O’Hare International Airport?
• do we inherit the disaster of Michigan’s auto industry?

The updside is that Barack Obama might decide to run for us instead.