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US economic policy is a result of the dollar being a world reserve currency. This is a unique privilege (usd being overvalued and liquid) and also a curse (ineq

by rapsey 6y ago

US economic policy is a result of the dollar being a world reserve currency. This is a unique privilege (usd being overvalued and liquid) and also a curse (inequality). Europe has quite a lot of internal migration and the US largely benefits from highly educated european and asian immigrants to SV. What makes europeans move is access to capital. It all comes down to the dollar.

astrange 6y ago
Well, that's a theory, but it's not proven and we'd have to lose the status to do the experiment. There are countries with higher median wealth than the US and there are countries with a higher debt to GDP ratio - Japan and Canada have both. Really it just seems like printing money is much safer than people think, and everyone is just afraid of inflation because it happened once in the 70s due to an energy crisis.
- rapsey 6y ago
  > There are countries with higher median wealth than the US and there are countries with a higher debt to GDP ratio - Japan and Canada have both. All irrelevant. > Really it just seems like printing money is much safer than people think It is safer when your currency is the one most other countries are indebted in and buy their goods in. USD increasing in value causes economic crises around the world, USD decreasing in value causes economic booms around the world. All because countries are paying their debts in dollars. > and everyone is just afraid of inflation because it happened once in the 70s due to an energy crisis. A whole lot of things happened in the 70s. Like the USD going off the gold standard completely, other countries starting to get rid of it for this reason and the establishment of the petro dollar to get it under control again. The 70s showed how things start unraveling when USD status is threatened.
  - lotsofpulp 6y ago
    The root cause is people around the world still trust the US organization as a country, at least more than the others.
    - rapsey 6y ago
      Yeah and the terrirists hate you for your freedom.

by rapsey 6y ago

astrange 6y ago

Well, that's a theory, but it's not proven and we'd have to lose the status to do the experiment. There are countries with higher median wealth than the US and there are countries with a higher debt to GDP ratio - Japan and Canada have both. Really it just seems like printing money is much safer than people think, and everyone is just afraid of inflation because it happened once in the 70s due to an energy crisis.

rapsey 6y ago
> There are countries with higher median wealth than the US and there are countries with a higher debt to GDP ratio - Japan and Canada have both. All irrelevant. > Really it just seems like printing money is much safer than people think It is safer when your currency is the one most other countries are indebted in and buy their goods in. USD increasing in value causes economic crises around the world, USD decreasing in value causes economic booms around the world. All because countries are paying their debts in dollars. > and everyone is just afraid of inflation because it happened once in the 70s due to an energy crisis. A whole lot of things happened in the 70s. Like the USD going off the gold standard completely, other countries starting to get rid of it for this reason and the establishment of the petro dollar to get it under control again. The 70s showed how things start unraveling when USD status is threatened.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  The root cause is people around the world still trust the US organization as a country, at least more than the others.
  - rapsey 6y ago
    Yeah and the terrirists hate you for your freedom.