Suchergebnisse

The U.S. economy and the hegemony of the dollar have for some time been sustained by a gigantic infusion of money from the rest of the world. The enormous size of its debt raises the prospect of the collapse of the dollar as a global reserve currency. Central banks worldwide have almost stopped accumulating dollars, and China has been divesting itself of the mountain of "toxic assets" that U.S. Treasury bonds have become. The fate of the dollar as a reserve currency will depend heavily on the effectiveness of the economic policy implemented by the United States in confronting the current crisis. The massive intervention undertaken has involved placing public funds in the service of a new cycle of capitalist profit-making—a new bubble inflated by public expenditures. When it becomes clear that the rescue plans and stimulus programs of the administration are ineffective and unsustainable, the crisis of confidence in the dollar may enter its final phase. The dilemma for the countries of the Third World will be to configure the new order that follows or be configured by it.