{"id":21834,"date":"2012-10-01T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=21834"},"modified":"2012-09-30T15:53:10","modified_gmt":"2012-09-30T14:53:10","slug":"dollar-hegemony-in-the-empire-of-the-damned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/10\/dollar-hegemony-in-the-empire-of-the-damned\/","title":{"rendered":"Dollar Hegemony in the Empire of the Damned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many commentators and economists wonder if the\u00a0US\u00a0is able to turn its ailing economy around. The reality is that it is bankrupt. However, as long as the dollar remains the world currency, the\u00a0US\u00a0can continue to pay its bills by simply printing more money. But once the world no longer accepts the dollar as\u00a0world reserve currency, the\u00a0US\u00a0will no longer be able to continue to pay its way or to fund its wars by relying on what would then be a relatively valueless paper currency.<\/em><\/p>\n

And the\u00a0US\u00a0realises this.\u00a0Today, more than 60 per cent\u00a0of all foreign currency reserves in the world are in US dollars, and the\u00a0US\u00a0will attempt to prevent countries moving off the dollar by any means possible. It seems compelled to do this simply because its economic infrastructure seems too weak and US corporate cartels will do anything to prevent policies that eat into their profits or serve to curtail political influence. They serve their own interests, not any notional \u2018national interest\u2019.<\/p>\n

Pail Graig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, notes that much of the most productive part of the\u00a0US\u00a0economy has been moved offshore in order to increase corporate profits. By doing so, the\u00a0US\u00a0has lost critical supply chains, industrial infrastructure, and the knowledge of skilled workers.\u00a0According to Roberts, the US could bring its corporations back to America by taxing their profits abroad and could also resort to protective tariffs, but such moves would be contrary to the material interests of the ruling oligarchy of private interests, which hold so much sway over US politics.<\/p>\n

So, with no solution to the crisis in site, the\u00a0US\u00a0is compelled to expand its predatory capitalism into foreign markets such as\u00a0India\u00a0and to wage imperialist wars to maintain global allegiance to the dollar and\u00a0US\u00a0hegemony. And this is exactly what we are seeing today as the US strategy for global supremacy is played out.<\/p>\n

Over the past two decades, the\u00a0US\u00a0has extended its influence throughout\u00a0Eastern Europe, many of the former Soviet states in central\u00a0Asia\u00a0and, among other places, in the former Yugoslavia,\u00a0Libya,\u00a0Iraq,\u00a0Yemen,\u00a0Afghanistan,\u00a0Syria\u00a0and\u00a0Pakistan. But with each passing year and each new conflict, the\u00a0US\u00a0has been drawing closer and closer to direct confrontation with\u00a0Russia\u00a0and\u00a0China, particularly as it enters their backyards in\u00a0Asia\u00a0and as\u00a0China\u00a0continues to emerge as a serious global power.<\/p>\n

Both countries are holding firm over\u00a0Syria.\u00a0Syria\u00a0plays host to\u00a0Russia\u2019s only naval base outside of the former\u00a0USSR, and Russia\u00a0and\u00a0China\u00a0know that if the\u00a0US\u00a0and its proxies topple the Assad government,\u00a0Tehran\u00a0becomes a much easier proposition.\u00a0Ideally, the\u00a0US\u00a0would like to install compliant regimes in\u00a0Moscow\u00a0and\u00a0Beijing\u00a0and exploiting political and ethnic divisions in the border regions of\u00a0Russia\u00a0and\u00a0China\u00a0would be that much easier if\u00a0Iran\u00a0fell to US interests.<\/p>\n

A global\u00a0US\u00a0strategy is already in force to undermine\u00a0China\u2019s growth and influence, part of which was the main reason for setting up AFRICOM: US Africa Command with responsibility for military operations and relations across\u00a0Africa. But\u00a0China\u00a0is not without influence, and its actions are serving to weaken the hegemony of the US dollar, thereby striking at a key nerve of\u00a0US\u00a0power.<\/p>\n

China\u00a0has been implementing bilateral trade agreements with a number of countries, whereby trade is no longer conducted in dollars, but in local currencies.\u00a0Over the past few years,China\u00a0and other emerging powers such as\u00a0Russia\u00a0have been making agreements to move away from the US dollar in international trade. The BRICS (Brazil,\u00a0Russia,\u00a0India,\u00a0China,South Africa) also plan to start using their own currencies when trading with each other.\u00a0Russia\u00a0and\u00a0China\u00a0have been using their own national currencies when trading with eachother for more than a year.<\/p>\n

A report from\u00a0Africa\u2019s largest bank, Standard Bank, recently stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u00a0expect at least $100 billion (about R768 billion) in Sino-African trade \u2013 more than the total bilateral trade between\u00a0China\u00a0and\u00a0Africa\u00a0in 2010 \u2013 to be settled in the renminbi by 2015.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Under Saddam, Iraq\u00a0was not using the dollar as the base currency for oil transactions, neither is\u00a0Iran\u00a0right now. Even\u00a0Libya\u2019s Muammar Gadhaffi was talking about using a gold backed dinar as the reserve currency for parts of\u00a0Africa. Look what happened to\u00a0Libya\u00a0and\u00a0Iraq\u00a0as a result.<\/p>\n

In 2000,\u00a0Iraq\u00a0converted all its oil transactions\u00a0to euros.\u00a0When\u00a0U.S.\u00a0invaded\u00a0Iraq\u00a0in 2003, it returned oil sales from the euro to the dollar. Little surprise then that we are currently watching the US attempt to remove the Iranian regime via sanctions, destabilization, intimidation and the threat of all out war.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, though,\u00a0Iran\u00a0is looking east to\u00a0China,\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0and central\u00a0Asia\u00a0in order to counteract the effects of US sanctions and develop its economy and boost trade. In order to sustain its empire,\u00a0US\u00a0aggression is effectively pushing the world into different camps and a new cold war that could well turn into a nuclear conflict given\u00a0 that\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Russia,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 China\u00a0and\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0all have nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0US\u00a0economy appears to be in terminal decline. The only way to prop it up is by lop-sided trade agreements or by waging war to secure additional markets and resources and to ensure the dollar remains the world reserve currency.\u00a0Humankind is currently facing a number of serious problems. But, arguably, an empire in decline armed to the teeth with both conventional and nuclear weapons and trapped in a cycle of endless war in what must surely be a futile attempt to stave off ruin is the most serious issue of all.<\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

Originally from the northwest of England, Colin<\/em> <\/em>Todhunter <\/em>has spent many years in India. He has written extensively for the Deccan Herald (the Bangalore-based broadsheet), New Indian Express and Morning Star (Britain). His articles have also appeared in various other publications. His East by Northwest website is at\u00a0<\/em>http:\/\/colintodhunter.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 globalresearch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many commentators and economists wonder if the US is able to turn its ailing economy around. The reality is that it is bankrupt. However, as long as the dollar remains the world currency, the US can continue to pay its bills by simply printing more money. But once the world no longer accepts the dollar as world reserve currency, the US will no longer be able to continue to pay its way or to fund its wars by relying on what would then be a relatively valueless paper currency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}