What happened to the US machine tool industry?

> So then we'd "loan" partners US dollars to buy our stuff?

Other way around, they buy T-bonds -- i.e., "loan" dollars to the US Government. But the country is still owed that money back - it's like a trillion dollar bank account. One could say China "lends" dollars to the Treasury, but it's also just as accurate to say they "deposit" dollars into the Treasury. It's all just words to describe the action of giving money to another party to hold onto temporarily.

"Strong" currency means there's more demand for it. Demand is usually a function of what you can buy with the currency.

When countries reinvest their dollars into T-Bonds, they are double dipping on establishing demand for dollars. On one hand, they are owed back the dollars handed over to the Treasury (thus, creating future demand for USD), and on the other, accepting USD for the sales of their goods/services induces demand for USD, since it is yet another good that can be purchased with USD.

"Weak" currency means that there's less demand for it. Weak currencies tend to be those from countries that produce little in the way of goods and services, or they only produce commodities (like oil) that are generally traded in other currencies.

A weak currency can be a benefit. Hence why so many countries seek to artificially weaken their currency (aka currency manipulation). They often do this by strengthening the the USD. Sell to the USA, accept USD from foreign trade partners, buy T-Bonds with excess currency. The market for USD is so damn big that this is often trivial to do unnoticed, like using ocean to fill a swimming pool. But economies like Japan and China eventually grew to the point where their currency manipulation had a meaningful impact on the USD and American economy, rising the ire of American politicians. You can read about the Japanese "lost decade" which was suspected to be the result of American politicians intentionally targeting the Japanese economy due to currency manipulation and a general fear that the Japanese would "take over the world." (you can see these fears highlighted in 80s movies)

> How does a noob like me learn about these systems.

Take an economics class. Eco 101 is kind of trash for understanding anything truly useful. But at higher levels, you get into mathematical models for the underlying systems that govern trade. Granted, it's a little more hand-wavy, since economists can't conduct experiments at the scale that physicists can. But there is generally some experimental data supporting the models (it just might be data collected on college students trading candy bars).

You can read about what happened to the Swiss economy during the pandemic. They are a smaller economy that's been plagued by an absurdly strong currency. There's been a lot of reporting and research into the many factors contributing to the currency's strength as well as the impacts it has had on such a small country.

If they did not; we would not have the entire art of scraping [0]

Yes, if meticulously maintained and lightly used some can last a good while. In a less pristine environment, say where deadlines need to get met, they wear out unevenly, for lathes, the ways near the headstock usually see more work than the tailstock end. So, the machine now cuts a taper when it is suppose to cut parallel.

[0] https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&q=scraping+machine+tools&ia=web

> If you dogmatically reject the idea that political economy could possibly involve the concept of class,

Class is a suitcase word that may refer to different ways of classifying people but often does not clarify which dimensions and clusters are being used in a particular context. Maybe Pettis does a better job than other authors. Perhaps you or the sibling comment author can provide an example?

From what I've heard, Japan has very different corporate culture, more focused on loyalty and social stability, than on maximizing profit. They can even keep unprofitable divisions of the company, because they don't want to fire people who work in them.

Would be nice if someone with first-hand knowledge of Japanese corporate world could confirm/deny it.

> When forced to spin out and stand alone by corporate raiders, those companies were effectively doomed as you just ripped out their ability to do R&D.

It would be just as fair to blame the original culture of having vertically integrated conglomerates to begin with.

If there is anyone who should be able to figure out how to automate manufacturing with a small number of workers, it should be a bunch of machinists. But you put them in a lumbering conglomerate and teach them that automation is the enemy because it will take their jobs. Then they take that same attitude into a smaller company that has to be leaner in order to survive and you've set them up for failure.

Whereas if you embrace it, instead of domestic buyers getting their goods from cheap labor in China, domestic and international buyers get their goods from automated domestic factories that employ fewer people per unit but make more units than ever before because they have globally competitive prices and the global demand when you can supply at a low price is enormous.

> Nobody in Cleveland gives a shit about whether someone in Africa is doing better when they can't make their house payment.

But the reason they can't make their house payment is the same kind of regulatory capture that they supported and caused them to lose their job, which in turn makes housing unaffordable because you can't outsource plumbers and electricians.