Defaulting and Devaluating

May 29th, 2005 at 13:13 Björn Hallberg

A small but vital debate has sprung up over at the Agonist regarding the future of the US economy and possible scenarios, all of them gloomy.

While speculation is rife and the variables nearly endless, it stands to reason that the US economy will implode given the current pressure of an economy mismanaged for decades. The "war on everything" isn’t helping either. As Chalmers Johnson reasons in Sorrows of Empire, the fist sector of the American empire to give will undoubtedly be the economic. And linked to this is of course the development of many Asian economies, like that of China which is building on its exports to the US. Needless to say, every country on the planet will get its share of the misery that will follow.

On the other hand, this debate will be academic once the United States plunges into free fall and openly adopts an overt totalitarian posture. When you have a world war on your hands, no one will care if the economy is slowing down. Because really, who among us actually believe that the US will go willingly, and give up its position and international influence. Falling back to a a default position of a broken ex super power. Unlikely given the climate in Washington and the idea of America on a mission and as set apart from the world.

Entry 110 filed under: North America. This entry was posted 3 years, 7 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.