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Krugman, another one of the economists who was a staunch supporter (if not the initiator) of the globalization doctrine has backtracked on it since 2019. He has

Krugman, another one of the economists who was a staunch supporter (if not the initiator) of the globalization doctrine has backtracked on it since 2019. He hasn’t been as vociferous as Deaton though. Giving away manufacturing is like handing over the keys to your war machine to someone else. The ONLY thing the US has going for it now is the dollar. However, given our behavior on freezing Russian funds and weaponizing it countries will look elsewhere. There are no alternatives - yet. But when one begins to emerges it will cause the next world war. Interestingly the conservatives who complain about fiscal imbalance should embrace a neutral currency. It will force the US to balance its books. The implications to workers over the years has been horrendous with whole industries being decommissioned across the United State, especially in poor rural areas. And you wonder why they look towards Trump. Well, it’s because the mainstream has been lying for a long time. What doesn’t get enough attention is the impact to national security. This level of outsourcing and hollowing out of US industry is going to take a long time to rebuild. In the meantime - battle readiness suffers which in turn will bring challenges to the USD.

mistermann 3y ago
> The ONLY thing the US has going for it now is the dollar - most powerful war machine - most powerful propaganda machine (international and domestic) - genuinely powerful economy - best geopolitical "alliances" (see above) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-spectrum_dominance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-spectrum_dominance --> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_warfare https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_warfare
- lowbloodsugar 3y ago
  It’s not how many weapons you have at the beginning of the war that counts. It’s how many you can make during the war that matters. We can’t even build aircraft carriers that can launch more than two aircraft every 30 minutes, and that before we talk about how carriers may be useless already.
- hayst4ck 3y ago
  > - most powerful propaganda machine (international and domestic) This is clearly false given the previous presidency. Russia's ability to project chaos and authoritarianism vastly exceeds our own. Additionally our rhetoric (rules based international order) is clearly false given that our observable stance is rules for our enemies but not our "allies". We have been shown to be bad faith actors geopolitically. Xi's geopolitics is winning in many places. Domestically we are divided and conquered. You don't have to take that from me. You can look up what Mattis and Milley have to say on the state of American "unity". The constitution is overthrown by an openly corrupt judicial junta and the idea of things like Civil War and Texxit (the balkanization of America) are becoming less fringe every day. We literally had an attempted coup that most of the people who the coup was against are either completely impotent against or literally in denial about. That is deep political instability and chaos for enemies to abuse. > - genuinely powerful economy Our economy is not powerful. Our financing is powerful. Our economy looks powerful because the US Dollar is the worlds reserve currency, something China and Russia are working very hard to chip away at. In a war, financing takes a back seat to actual ability to produce. America's economy is built on intangibles. A powerful economy can make medical masks and bullets when they need to. That's not us. Inflation is barely managed, and "greed"flation, which is inversely proportional to a markets competitive forces, is definitely un-managed. > - most powerful war machine And yet our war machines strength is being tested. Ukraine is stalling. Inability to provide bullets is a clear indicator our war machine is weak. Ironically China is showing to have the superior war machine given the success of consumer drones. It's worth considering how much of an effect sanctions did not have. I don't think we have any kind of reputation for efficiently and quickly building any kind of infrastructure. 60 days for an ocean based logistics port? The Afghanistan exit wasn't exactly confidence building. > - best geopolitical "alliances" (see above) Half of our government is promising obstruction and isolationism. "America first" is not something countries in a functioning alliance say. The Nord Stream pipeline isn't something allies build. A president was impeached over how they interacted with an "ally" and then protected despite their abuse. The US is a paper tiger. America is imploding from the inside.
  - danaris 3y ago
    > > - most powerful propaganda machine (international and domestic) > This is clearly false given the previous presidency. That doesn't follow. Just because another country has a propaganda machine that was, when fully engaged and focused on a a singular goal, able to achieve that goal in our country, doesn't mean that our propaganda machine isn't more powerful. It could just mean that ours was blindsided by this particular effort of theirs, or any of various other scenarios. Note that I'm not saying our propaganda machine is stronger—just that this particular argument is not remotely conclusive.
danielmarkbruce 3y ago
The US makes up the vast majority of technology companies right now.
- orochimaaru 3y ago
  Not true. Technology depends on semiconductors. That is in two places - Taiwan and netherlands(asml). The software companies do not mean much without the semiconductors.
  - danielmarkbruce 3y ago
    It's significantly more complex than that - korea also has a good amount of capacity, as does japan, and the US still has something like 10% of actual capacity in country, and then US companies control something like 40%. On top of that US companies design an enormous amount of semiconductors, and the materials come from all over the place. The design tools are largely american, a lot of semi conductor equipment is american.

mistermann 3y ago

> The ONLY thing the US has going for it now is the dollar - most powerful war machine - most powerful propaganda machine (international and domestic) - genuinely powerful economy - best geopolitical "alliances" (see above) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-spectrum_dominance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-spectrum_dominance --> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_warfare https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_warfare

lowbloodsugar 3y ago
It’s not how many weapons you have at the beginning of the war that counts. It’s how many you can make during the war that matters. We can’t even build aircraft carriers that can launch more than two aircraft every 30 minutes, and that before we talk about how carriers may be useless already.
hayst4ck 3y ago
> - most powerful propaganda machine (international and domestic) This is clearly false given the previous presidency. Russia's ability to project chaos and authoritarianism vastly exceeds our own. Additionally our rhetoric (rules based international order) is clearly false given that our observable stance is rules for our enemies but not our "allies". We have been shown to be bad faith actors geopolitically. Xi's geopolitics is winning in many places. Domestically we are divided and conquered. You don't have to take that from me. You can look up what Mattis and Milley have to say on the state of American "unity". The constitution is overthrown by an openly corrupt judicial junta and the idea of things like Civil War and Texxit (the balkanization of America) are becoming less fringe every day. We literally had an attempted coup that most of the people who the coup was against are either completely impotent against or literally in denial about. That is deep political instability and chaos for enemies to abuse. > - genuinely powerful economy Our economy is not powerful. Our financing is powerful. Our economy looks powerful because the US Dollar is the worlds reserve currency, something China and Russia are working very hard to chip away at. In a war, financing takes a back seat to actual ability to produce. America's economy is built on intangibles. A powerful economy can make medical masks and bullets when they need to. That's not us. Inflation is barely managed, and "greed"flation, which is inversely proportional to a markets competitive forces, is definitely un-managed. > - most powerful war machine And yet our war machines strength is being tested. Ukraine is stalling. Inability to provide bullets is a clear indicator our war machine is weak. Ironically China is showing to have the superior war machine given the success of consumer drones. It's worth considering how much of an effect sanctions did not have. I don't think we have any kind of reputation for efficiently and quickly building any kind of infrastructure. 60 days for an ocean based logistics port? The Afghanistan exit wasn't exactly confidence building. > - best geopolitical "alliances" (see above) Half of our government is promising obstruction and isolationism. "America first" is not something countries in a functioning alliance say. The Nord Stream pipeline isn't something allies build. A president was impeached over how they interacted with an "ally" and then protected despite their abuse. The US is a paper tiger. America is imploding from the inside.
- danaris 3y ago
  > > - most powerful propaganda machine (international and domestic) > This is clearly false given the previous presidency. That doesn't follow. Just because another country has a propaganda machine that was, when fully engaged and focused on a a singular goal, able to achieve that goal in our country, doesn't mean that our propaganda machine isn't more powerful. It could just mean that ours was blindsided by this particular effort of theirs, or any of various other scenarios. Note that I'm not saying our propaganda machine is stronger—just that this particular argument is not remotely conclusive.

danielmarkbruce 3y ago

The US makes up the vast majority of technology companies right now.

orochimaaru 3y ago
Not true. Technology depends on semiconductors. That is in two places - Taiwan and netherlands(asml). The software companies do not mean much without the semiconductors.
- danielmarkbruce 3y ago
  It's significantly more complex than that - korea also has a good amount of capacity, as does japan, and the US still has something like 10% of actual capacity in country, and then US companies control something like 40%. On top of that US companies design an enormous amount of semiconductors, and the materials come from all over the place. The design tools are largely american, a lot of semi conductor equipment is american.