I have been reading a lot about the financial crisis and have come to realize that the current crisis is structural. By that, I mean that no amount of tweaking of the current system by law or regulation is going to work. We have reached the inevitable end of the international currency system established after WWII. Let's call it "the dollar standard". Rather than go into lots of detail, essentially the dollar standard is where foreign currencies are pegged to the dollar and the dollar has value primarily due to its status as reserve currency.
After the financial crisis, organizations like the G-7 and G-20 discussed the idea of going off the dollar standard and developing a new world currency. Several suggestions were bandied about but no actionable plan develpoed. Don't assume this inaction means that the dollar's supremacy is safe -- it is just that the time is not yet ripe to take drastic action. Governmental bodies, especially international ones, never make major decisions unless there is a dire emergency pushing them to. No matter how bad you think the situation is now, it hasn't gotten really bad yet.
Eventually, the crisis will metastasize and the powers-that-be will decide that "something must be done". Unlike the Bretton-Woods conference after WWII, America will not be in a strong position and able to dominate the discussion. Then, the US was the strongest country with an intact industrial base after a devastating war. The other nations needed US foreign aid to help rebuild after the war. Any new negotiations concerning development of a new world currency regime will be quite different. America is now a debtor nation with a hollowed-out industrial base. The US will have a much harder time pursuing their interests this time around.
Which brings me to my main point. In this new world we find ourselves in, where there is a coming realignment and readjustment, the United States desperately needs leadership who will fight for American interests. But the biggest problem with the current ruling elite in America is that they do not share the values and aspirations of average Americans. Rasmussen's latest poll shows the wide gap between ordinary Americans and the ruling class.
Recall at Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's confirmation hearing he talked about how he had spent time in his childhood in foreign countries due to his parent's work. He stated that this allowed him to be able to understand and emphathise with how foreigners think. But what we need are leaders who understand and emphathise with how Americans think!
We need someone who spent their formative years in the US, not a foreign country. We need someone who embraces rather than mocks "fly-over country". We need someone who believes there is nothing wrong with Kansas. We need someone who embraces American ideals of limited, constitutional government and individual freedom.
After the financial crisis, organizations like the G-7 and G-20 discussed the idea of going off the dollar standard and developing a new world currency. Several suggestions were bandied about but no actionable plan develpoed. Don't assume this inaction means that the dollar's supremacy is safe -- it is just that the time is not yet ripe to take drastic action. Governmental bodies, especially international ones, never make major decisions unless there is a dire emergency pushing them to. No matter how bad you think the situation is now, it hasn't gotten really bad yet.
Eventually, the crisis will metastasize and the powers-that-be will decide that "something must be done". Unlike the Bretton-Woods conference after WWII, America will not be in a strong position and able to dominate the discussion. Then, the US was the strongest country with an intact industrial base after a devastating war. The other nations needed US foreign aid to help rebuild after the war. Any new negotiations concerning development of a new world currency regime will be quite different. America is now a debtor nation with a hollowed-out industrial base. The US will have a much harder time pursuing their interests this time around.
Which brings me to my main point. In this new world we find ourselves in, where there is a coming realignment and readjustment, the United States desperately needs leadership who will fight for American interests. But the biggest problem with the current ruling elite in America is that they do not share the values and aspirations of average Americans. Rasmussen's latest poll shows the wide gap between ordinary Americans and the ruling class.
Recall at Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's confirmation hearing he talked about how he had spent time in his childhood in foreign countries due to his parent's work. He stated that this allowed him to be able to understand and emphathise with how foreigners think. But what we need are leaders who understand and emphathise with how Americans think!
We need someone who spent their formative years in the US, not a foreign country. We need someone who embraces rather than mocks "fly-over country". We need someone who believes there is nothing wrong with Kansas. We need someone who embraces American ideals of limited, constitutional government and individual freedom.
posted by CBDenver at 7:25 AM
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