Ukraine ping
In the 90s, Jeff Sachs was a shill for Russian Communist officials who urged that Russian government assets be quickly and sloppily privatized in a way that put those assets in the personal pockets of these men. Now he’s shilling for Putin, one of the victors of that process. He’s obviously a creature of habit, and possibly on their payroll.
The US seized Iraq’s assets to pay Kuwait reparations. It seized Germany’s US assets for itself in WW1 and WW2. I used to think Jeff Sachs was wrong because he was locked into his left-wing nostrums by habit. Now I think he’s just lazy.
There’s a strain of thought among leftists that the US was a backwater, continental-scale hick town before WW2. Then WW2 ended, and the US became the #1 economy by pointing a gun at the world’s head. In reality, however, it was already the #1 economy in 1900, when the British pound was the world reserve currency.
Reserve currency status is a burden. This is why the US made no effort to make the dollar a major reserve currency until the collapse of British finances after WW2 made it necessary. It needed to grease the wheels of international commerce so as to help the war-wrecked economies of the world recover. The alternative to economic resuscitation was Russian-equipped and -organized revolutions everywhere that made the US strategic situation a lot more dangerous.
The big downside to reserve currency status is running trade deficits. This is why Switzerland charges instead of pays interest to foreign institutions that park large sums in its currency.
“The big downside to reserve currency status is running trade deficits.”
While that’s true you also have to take in the benefits. It allows us to tinker with the global financial system, run up huge deficits and make the dollar worth more in comparison to other currencies. But this is all coming down regardless with our $34 trillion plus in UNPAYABLE debt. This Ponzi is coming to an end. We have our own gas and oil but most European countries are screwed. In any event the dollar is headed down in a big way and so is our standard of living. If you think there’s social unrest in this country now you haven’t seen nothing yet.