Comments on: The End of Influence: What Happens When Other Countries Have the Money

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:08:31 +0000

@Monevator – is it the UK or US that’s more out along the curve? Good point.

By: Monevator

Monevator — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:47:20 +0000

Another issue for Greece is it needs to refinance its debt soon — in that sense it’s a liquidity issue. The US, like the US, is massively in-hock but it’s more out along the curve.

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:37:15 +0000

I actually have a slightly improved view of the book now that I’ve completed it. The authors argue that the U.S. is/has/will be losing its cultural influence, which always only came about as a result of its economic influence. The wild card and clincher here is the world reserve currency. The media attention on Greece right now (only 3% of the EURO economy) kills me since the U.S. is in a far worse absolute debt position but no one bats an eye worldwide – and it’s because the USD has privileged status through the world reserve currency. It’s not fair, but it’s the fact right now. That’s why the US can keep printing money and not many countries can do anything about it. It’s sad. It’s how lifestyle inflation will be affecting all of us, in all countries.

By: Monevator

Monevator — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:54:18 +0000

Speaking as a Brit, we’ve been through this as a nation. It’s painful at first – after world war II the UK, which had been so dominant with the Empire and so forth through the 19th Century, had to accept it was on the decline relative to America (in fact we were pay of WW2 debt for decades, though that wasn’t a huge factor), to the extent that we even realised we couldn’t afford our own independent nuclear deterrent, even as politicians continued to trumpet it.

The weird thing as a kid was how all this baggage of Empire was still around in my childhood, decades after those events. Today’s kids are different I think — they have a more realistic view of Britain, which is like some international X Factor powerhouse as best I can tell, with Four Weddings and a Funeral stuck on the side for the old folks. ;)

By: Chad @ Sentient Money

Chad @ Sentient Money — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:37:09 +0000

As an opposing view I just finished reading a book called The Next 100 Years by George Friedman. He is a former CIA analyst who started his own intelligenc firm, Stratfor. Anyway, he suggests that in the near future 30-50 years it’s almost impossible for the U.S. to lose it’s position economically, as it controls access to the Atlantic and Pacific and there are no real challengers. He is essentially saying nothing else matters, and makes his point fairly well.

It’s interesting as it’s a different angle than what is normally taken.