Chris, ever heard of Gary, Indiana? There was massive destruction of American based capital in the mass production consumer goods industries. Because the dollar is strong esp in relation to 'third world' currencies due to its role as intl reserve currency, the pricing of oil in dollars and the US monopoly over advanced weapons system, US capital can take advantage of the intl division of labor and get fat on cheap imports in dollar terms, sometimes as sophisticated as basic memory chips, from subsidiaries or foreign companies, thereby streamlining the mfg sector.
Due to a global slump, the advanced capital goods sector has not grown sufficiently to absorb displaced workers (as the Keynesians would put it, it's not a supply shortage of skilled labor but a lack of investment demand that's the problem on a global scale, though internal US investment is benefitting from low interet rates made possible by global capital flight). The displaced workers are left to fend for themselves in the only sector that has shown net job growth: low paid services.
The core workers in the streamlined mfg sector tend not to be subject to cycles because given their skills firms must retain them even in downturns--by the way, Charles Babbage gave this as one of the reasons Britain should specialize in the production and export of capital goods and not fear exporting its technology away. At any rate,there has been an accentuation of inequality within the American working class due to the massive destruction of capital in the US. And as we can see with Microsoft's development of a temp system for even the most skilled workers, the most skilled of workers are getting their feet cut from underneath them.
No matter how well American capital can weather the storm, the condition of the American working class overall has grown more insecure and degraded--though presently somewhat masked by the wealth effect from the bubble created by the global flight for quality. The underlying degradation is sure to soon manifest itself.
> So viewed globally the capitalist world is one economic unit with the core
> of concentration of finance capital in the USA.
Yes, all those transactions in dollars due to intl role priviliges American finance capital but the strength lent to the dollar thereby is not a blessing for the American working class.
>
> The largest mass of capital withstands the crisis best. Bits of US capital
> had to be destroyed but only bits.
You are underestimating the magnitude of destruction and the structural transformation to which it has given rise.
> The crucial thing that with kid gloves Greenspan ensured that it did not
> trigger a specifically US crisis of circulation of credit.
>
> Therefore the contradiction between the limited purchasing power of the
> masses and the need for capital to continue to accumulate, did not hit the
> US. The crisis has been off-loaded onto other countries, whose masses have
> suffered a very real reduction in their relative purchasing power.
We need to elaborate the exact mechanics of this.
yours, rakesh