>Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> Hey, if you want to be conspiratorial about it, AG welcomes some
>> competition so that it will force an austerity program on the U.S.,
>> and thereby balance the current account. And, conveniently, external
>> forces could be blamed.
>
>You really buy into this Kautskyite idea of inter-imperialist collusion,
>don't you?
Yup. So far. It could all change, but right now it's a lovefest. Or maybe a family, which can be fucked up, but still bound together.
>The US ruling class doesn't like being made to do things by external forces.
>They prefer being the external force that coerces other people into doing
>things. They like their hegemony, and they like having the sole reserve
>currency.
The president of the NY Fed made the argument I made in the quoted bit in Congressional testimony a year or two ago. I wish I had the exact quote, but it was surprisingly frank.
The bourgies have to be alarmed about growing U.S. indebtedness. Orthodoxy would require an austerity program to raise domestic savings (or depress domestic consumption, which amounts to the same thing) and thereby balance the current account. And whether they like it or not, the euro will become serious competition soon enough.
Doug