> Robert Hunter Wade, "The American Empire,"
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,627845,00.html>.
>What features do you hard-wire into the international political
>economy? First, free capital mobility. Second, free trade (except imports
>that threaten domestic industries important for your reselection). Third,
>international investment free from any discriminatory favouring of
>national companies through protection, public procurement, public
>ownership or other devices, with special emphasis on the freedom of your
>companies to get the custom of national elites for the management of
>their financial assets, their private education, healthcare, pensions,
>and the like. Fourth, your currency as the main reserve currency. Fifth,
>no constraint on your ability to create your currency at will (such as a
>dollar-gold link), so that you can finance unlimited trade deficits with
>the rest of the world. Sixth, international lending at variable interest
>rates denominated in your currency, which means that borrowing countries
>in crisis have to repay you more when their capacity to repay is less.
#1 and #2 allowed East Asia and the EU to demolish the US auto and machine-tools industries; #3 turned out to be great for Vivendi, E.on and DoCoMo; the euro took care of #4; both Japan and the EU already have #5; and the Eurobanks own and operate the global credit system, nicely mopping up #6.
-- Dennis