~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another interesting take on Bretton Woods.
It may be that neither the premise (end of B-W) nor the conclusion (good for USA) is correct, but the topic is certainly worthy of consideration.
B-W helped establish supremacy of US Dollar, as well as the American "Empire." But the globalist money power--not subject to U.S. control--is its current operator.
If B-W collapses, the immediate effect will be much higher prices and shortages for a lot of things in America. Hopefully Trump and America First politics will have a chance to take root, bringing back domestic manufacturing and reliance on domestic markets, before this occurs.
A perfect (if not ironic) example of this is what is happening in the Red Sea, with U.S. Navy solving a major problem for China.
Zeihan argues it will be painful for all, but inevitable, but that it will be the least painful for the US for a myriad of reasons.
BW said that in return for the low, low price of letting the US write your security policy, you can 1) have access to the US consumer market, the largest in the world since about 1870, and 2) you have complete freedom of navigation with the US Navy guaranteeing the safety of your merchants. At the end of WW2 the US Navy had ~6,800 ships. We were effectively the ONLY Navy in the world. The next two navies, Britain & France were our allies.
Building and operating a Navy is one of the most expensive things a nation can do. Navies were necessary for defending your merchant shipping and preying on the shipping of your enemies. BW meant that nations no longer needed to build navies and were free to use that money to industrialize. And industrialize they did.
BW also ended the Imperial system. Colonies were no longer needed to get the STUFF your economy needed and didn't have.
As a result BW gave us the world we know today. It wasn't until Nixon offered Mao the chance to join BW that China was able to begin industrializing. It also pried them away from the Soviet Union.
The PRC is utterly dependent on the continuation of BW. It's navy, the PLAN, may have a lot of ships but they can't guarantee its trade. The PLAN is the reverse of a T-Rex, great big arms, little bitty legs. The eleven nuclear carriers of the USN displace more than the entire PLAN. By displacement, the USN is about 2.5 times the size of the PLAN.
BW as it has been, no longer makes economic, military, or political sense for the US. Therefore, it will end. But not all at once.
The USN is NOT in the Red Sea to solve a problem for China. They are there to protect the trade of its allies in Europe and Israel. It may have the effect of solving a problem for China but that is not the reason. It does point out, again, to the CCP just how dependent China is on BW and the USN.
SpyNavy
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)