FT.Com's Most-Read Story Of The Year Traces Parallels Between Fall Of Roman Empire and Modern U.S.

By: Mark Fitzgerald Quick quiz: Name the comptroller general of the United States.

David Walker is not a name that springs to mind as readily as, say, Paris Hilton, but an interview he gave last August to the Financial Times turns out to be 2007's most-read story on the business daily's Web site, FT.com.

Much of the credit for the wide readership probably goes to the headline writer. "Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned," is the hed FT gave it. Surely that wording drove more traffic than FT might have gotten with, "US Comptroller General Issues Downbeat Report."

Much of the article, by FT Washington correspondent Jeremy Grant, , concerned a report Walker issued earlier this year that warned the government is on a "burning platform" of too much debt, unsustainable military commitments, underfunded health care, and other long-range problems.

"Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire," Grant wrote, "Mr Walker warned there were 'striking similarities' between America's current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including 'declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government'."

The following are the ten most-read stories on FT.com.

1. Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned
2. Chinese military hacked into Pentagon
3. Iran on course for nuclear bomb, EU told
4. Google's goal: to organise your daily life
5. Pelosi backtracks on Armenia 'genocide' bill
6. Industry caught in carbon 'smokescreen'
7. Vista marks end of an era for Microsoft
8. Memo to Obama: win Iowa or lose the race
9. Gates warns on US immigration curbs
10. Globalisation backlash in rich nations