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

lynalden.com

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

#111
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

He ended up reversing the steady gain we've had in manufacturing jobs since 2010, albeit indirectly, because he botched the response to covid. https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES3000000001

The argument against his covid response was in not using more aggressive lockdowns. Which is the thing that increases unemployment. You seem to be arguing that more lockdowns, which increase unemployment in the short term, would have reduced unemployment in the short term (i.e. the period measured in that data).

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

#112

This is perhaps the best written article on the current state and future of US dollar (and thus, America). As an avid follower of geopolitics and with exposure to both east and west, I've often had to work out where the future lies and the thoughts of this article appear to mirror mine. Especially since Trump's election, I have always wondered about the future of America, not just socially but also economically. Trum…

I used to think losing US reserve currency was a bad thing, but now I see it as our responsibility to hand the world back their sovereignty. This could heal the planet more.

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

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the open, competitive, low-middle-man economic vision. I'm not sure whether the volatility of ETH price matters much when stablecoins are readily available. Generally: I'll switch to ethereum for daily spending when I can spend through a proxy that allows revert an erroneous transaction (e.g. a overcharge or wrong recipient), perhaps necessarily arbitrated by a 3rd party. It's just a little too stressful sendi…

I don't think crypto will ever be used on daily spending, but could be better for 'contractual spending'. It won't ever be used for buying a coke, or anything like that (not saying it won't, just not it's actual purpose'. Things like employment, insurance, reccuring subscriptions, etc. It can A.) sometimes insure anonymity when wanted, complete visibility of reccuring spend and contract in place but employment is goi…

>I don't think crypto will ever be used on daily spending

I agree, it's great of contractual/conditional speding.

But I think it'll be used for daily spending in the next 5 yrs.

My business receives payments via stripe where they take 2.7% fee. then i have to wait 2-3 business days to receive it in my account. I hate this & already offer a 2% discount when buyers pay my business in crypto. And a surprising # of my employees (~35%) would prefer to get paid in crypto.

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

#114

"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…

My father was one of the last tool makers in the US working for Molex. They spent years teaching the Chinese, the Chinese would disassemble all molds sent over to China and often break them, so my fathers team would have to fix / rebuild them. They spent years training the Chinese side-by-side in the US. In the end they still haven’t exactly caught up to the quality we had in the US. However, they now have 5x the too…

[deleted]

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

#115

"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…

Had you shorted the US stock market in 2000 on that prediction/hunch, you would be down a lot. The economy has moved beyond manufacturing. Data, payment, and information processing and intellectual ropery have taken over manufacturing in importance.

There is national security interest in being able to manufacture our own weapons, computers, and infrastructure components. Otherwise if a war happens we may be in trouble.

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

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Shenzhen factory labour is more expensive than America. The labour is higher quality, though.

Average salary in Shenzhen (2019) was 127K yuan, or about $18K usd. Average salary (manufacturing) in the US is about $30K usd.

I'm sure that after you adjust for cost of living, the numbers more or less look equal. However, keep in mind that manufacturing is leaving Shenzhen because of rising wages.

Sources:

Shenzhen Annual Salaries: http://www.sz.gov.cn/en_szgov/news/latest/content/post_78894...

US Annual Salaries: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes519199.htm

Shenzhen Manufacturing (it's a news story, but you can find a ton of them with the same theme): https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3108207/c...

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

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father was one of the last tool makers in the US working for Molex. They spent years teaching the Chinese, the Chinese would disassemble all molds sent over to China and often break them, so my fathers team would have to fix / rebuild them. They spent years training the Chinese side-by-side in the US. In the end they still haven’t exactly caught up to the quality we had in the US. However, they now have 5x the too…

I am surprised that no one has mentioned punitive taxation of companies that engage in offshoring/higher taxes on foreign direct investment as an alternative to tariffs.

Taxing companies that offshore favours foreign competition even more, because they won’t be taxed.

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

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father was one of the last tool makers in the US working for Molex. They spent years teaching the Chinese, the Chinese would disassemble all molds sent over to China and often break them, so my fathers team would have to fix / rebuild them. They spent years training the Chinese side-by-side in the US. In the end they still haven’t exactly caught up to the quality we had in the US. However, they now have 5x the too…

> To compete, you really do have to cut minimum wage. You have to loosen regulations, and importantly, you have to do massive tariffs / sanctions on China for the next decade. Part of the problem here is that the existence of some kind of universal "more regulations / less regulations" slider is an illusion. It allows the problem to be cast in partisan terms when that isn't the problem at all, because the problem isn…

Very well put - efficient and diligent deregulation would be a great thing to see.
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