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The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

lynalden.com

21–30 of 367 posts

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#21

You've been on HN for 13 years, and this is your first post in 7. Welcome back! Can you provide any context regarding why this article made the cut, when nothing did for 7 years? Sorry if it's a bit off topic; it's just an interesting circumstance, and I'm curious.

It's pretty clear that the account was either sold or taken over. Look at the most recent comments as well; not even a single one since 2012.

I know we aren't supposed to talk about this per HN guidelines, but this is just too blatant. And yes, I've already emailed hn@ycombinator.com.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#22

"Instead of drawing down our gold reserves, however, we gradually draw down our domestic manufacturing base and it gets replaced piece-by-piece in foreign countries." To me, this is the money shot. I hadn't seen this expressed before and it makes perfect sense. I'm baffled that we (the US) caused this to happen to the US. I'm (unhappily) registered Republican but I argued vociferously to a Dem friend in 2000 that our…

This happened in part thanks to bain capital, those following the same business model of theivery, and the deregulation in the 80's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain_Capital Republican lawmakers and party members have been destroying America for generations. Goes back even further to 1971 when Nixon opened talks with the CCCP and then went there in 1972 cutting the ground out from beneath American workers. And now…

Trump was the first president in my lifetime to even admit gutting our manufacturing base is a problem. Neither Democrats nor establishment Republicans did anything but line up for their shockingly paltry share of the loot while mouthing platitudes about efficiency.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#23
post #7

Which country would benefit from a weaker dollar? Germany wants to sell their cars. China their phones. If Americans can't afford them any more, then a big market would disappear.

None of them. It's a constant battle. I always hear the trope that we "owe" China money because they buy bonds but the entire reason they're buying bonds is to keep the Renminbi weaker than the USD.

Germany is a weird corner case where the entire reason for the Euro is to allow them to keep their currency artificially weak by using the rest of Europe's economy as a place to dilute their export power. The DM was getting relentlessly stronger against the USD and Sterling and when the conversion to Euros happened, major holders of DMs got absolutely hosed.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#24

"Instead of drawing down our gold reserves, however, we gradually draw down our domestic manufacturing base and it gets replaced piece-by-piece in foreign countries." To me, this is the money shot. I hadn't seen this expressed before and it makes perfect sense. I'm baffled that we (the US) caused this to happen to the US. I'm (unhappily) registered Republican but I argued vociferously to a Dem friend in 2000 that our…

This happened in part thanks to bain capital, those following the same business model of theivery, and the deregulation in the 80's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain_Capital Republican lawmakers and party members have been destroying America for generations. Goes back even further to 1971 when Nixon opened talks with the CCCP and then went there in 1972 cutting the ground out from beneath American workers. And now…

Confused about this illegal substances thing, can you elaborate?

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#25

"Instead of drawing down our gold reserves, however, we gradually draw down our domestic manufacturing base and it gets replaced piece-by-piece in foreign countries." To me, this is the money shot. I hadn't seen this expressed before and it makes perfect sense. I'm baffled that we (the US) caused this to happen to the US. I'm (unhappily) registered Republican but I argued vociferously to a Dem friend in 2000 that our…

[deleted]

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#26
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened in part thanks to bain capital, those following the same business model of theivery, and the deregulation in the 80's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain_Capital Republican lawmakers and party members have been destroying America for generations. Goes back even further to 1971 when Nixon opened talks with the CCCP and then went there in 1972 cutting the ground out from beneath American workers. And now…

Trump was the first president in my lifetime to even admit gutting our manufacturing base is a problem. Neither Democrats nor establishment Republicans did anything but line up for their shockingly paltry share of the loot while mouthing platitudes about efficiency.

True, but he said he said that simply because Bernie did, and it played well against Hillary in the primaries.

He didn’t do anything that actually slowed the loss of our manufacturing base while president.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#27
"From there, paper currency and credit was added as a more convenient layer onto gold."

It's not a universally accepted opinion but I take Martin Felix's view, articulated in "Money," that credit predates coinage.

It's turned me off the article and as a consequence I can't read any more.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#28
post #6

> More troublesome, the inherent flaw of having the global reserve currency, in a theme that goes back to economist Robert Triffin from over half a century ago, is that in order to maintain the global reserve currency, the country must supply the world with its currency via structural deficits in one form or another. That "structural deficit" means allowing manufacturing to move overseas. The trade war is a distracti…

Inflating the dollar is probably the only way we're going to get out of the hole we're in, so that'd kill two bird with one stone.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#29

"Instead of drawing down our gold reserves, however, we gradually draw down our domestic manufacturing base and it gets replaced piece-by-piece in foreign countries." To me, this is the money shot. I hadn't seen this expressed before and it makes perfect sense. I'm baffled that we (the US) caused this to happen to the US. I'm (unhappily) registered Republican but I argued vociferously to a Dem friend in 2000 that our…

I think people are starting to realise that globalisation needs to be balanced with other kinds of security especially around tech, hence TSMC being given a stack of cash to build a fab in the US. I wouldn’t say globalisation is dead more that it’s going to be more balanced going forward with local concerns.

So much of globalization up through the 2000s was exploitation of emerging markets for cheap labor and lax environmental and safety standards. This was not wholly without benefit to the people in these countries though: it has dragged a lot of the third world out of abject poverty despite some of the dystopian aspects. Hopefully the next three decades will be better on a number of fronts.

Re: The fraying of the U.S. global currency reserve system

#30

"Instead of drawing down our gold reserves, however, we gradually draw down our domestic manufacturing base and it gets replaced piece-by-piece in foreign countries." To me, this is the money shot. I hadn't seen this expressed before and it makes perfect sense. I'm baffled that we (the US) caused this to happen to the US. I'm (unhappily) registered Republican but I argued vociferously to a Dem friend in 2000 that our…

This is 100%, the fact the US can barely manufacturer face masks during a global pandemic is embarrassing.

On the other end, how do you compete with slave labor in the Chinese factories?

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