Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Is Washington Forcing an Internal Devaluation ?

Given the international role of and demand for the dollar, it seems that the Obama administration is quietly carrying out a policy of internal devaluation - i.e. a driving down of wages and living standards - because they know the dollar can't fall enough to make the U.S. 'competitive'. A long period of protracted unemployment is basically the only way to make this happen. In that way, the U.S. is like Greece, with a currency it can't fully control.

Again though, how credible is a political and economic system going to be when the indispensable nation can't maintain the living standards of its population ? The bottom line is the U.S. cannot afford empire, either financial or military, anymore. It's over, and the entire global architecture is going to fail. Actually, this will create opportunities for some decent politics to take shape but the general lack of working class solidarity - Americans basically hate each other - means we could collapse into a sort of Dark Ages.

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