is this the beginning of our new world order? (union, credit, debt)

[floridasandy]

Sarkozy Pushes for Abandonment of Dollar as World Reserve Currency
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday ahead of the G20 meeting of world leaders:

"I am leaving tomorrow for Washington to explain that the dollar cannot claim to be the only currency in the world..., that what was true in 1945 can no longer be true today".
There have been many previous indications that the dollar would not remain the world's reserve currency for long. But this is a dramatic statement by a close American ally.

[bale002]

The beginnings of the new world order started with the IT/communications technology revolution, the US economic revival in the 1980s, and the end of the Cold War, for better and for worse.

The worse part is the gutting of the US manufacturing base and that the US ruling class has become perversely corrupted, especially over the past 8-10 years.

The first Roman Emperor from outside Italy was Trajan in 98 AD, his successor Hadrian acceded to power not only outside Rome, but outside Italy (in Antioch, near the border of modern day Turkey and Syria).

Now, the next US president is from a different background than past presidents, though he will take the oath of office in Washington. But, who knows, the next US president may take oath of office elsewhere. Maybe Dubai?

I am not sure if there will be game-changing reforms coming out of this particular G-20 meeting, but it is scheduled to be the first in a series and it may well lead to game-changing reforms over the next year to four years.

Eventually I see a global pooling of pension and health care financing: go forward, Chinese, Brazilian, Indonesian et al workers will finance the retirements of the aging populations of the US, Europe and Japan, with all its implications for the quality of such retirement.

Either that or the glue factory.

[GregW]

There has been pressure to prevent the trading of oil in Euros (Iraq War) for some time. Inevitably the currency of the empire is replaced as the empire weakens due to over expansion and the internal corruption of the ruling classes into hedonism and speculation. Since Regan outspent the Soviet Union with borrowed money we have been running down this trail. We have wasted money in countless places trying to assure our oil industry’s access to crude oil profits without realizing “our” companies have become internationalized and no longer care who supports their right to loot. That money was borrowed and, under current circumstances, can never be repaid except with worthless inflated currency. The world has become less than happy with the prospect of being paid with worthless dollars.

Our economy is similar to an antebellum southern cotton plantation where the war killed the heirs, the bole weevil the cotton, and erosion took array the soil. The plantation house is still there but the economic base has been destroyed. Only the white house on the hill remains a shining example of apparent wealth but the roof leaks and the floors are rotting.

I believe there is a way out of this mess but it will take time and effort that we may not have. Our population will have to become frugal and only buy with cash not credit. We will have to stop speculating in housing. The government will have to raise taxes on the upper 5% to pay off the money we have borrowed from the Chinese and others. We will have to install countervailing tariffs to eliminate the environmental cost and labor differences between our economy and the third world even if it devalues the investment made in overseas facilities by our industrialists.

I expect this will lower everyone’s standard of living because consumer good will be priced high enough to be MADE IN AMERICA by union workers, upper crust incomes taxed to pay off the government debt and the effective elimination of huge bonuses and golden parachutes for executives. Our government will also have to give up the imperial hubris that has led us to attempt empire. We can no longer afford an empire. Basically we will have to, as a nation, return to living within our means no matter how much it hurts everyone including the ruling class.

[drjones96]

Originally Posted by floridasandy

...But this is a dramatic statement by a close American ally.

I wouldn't call the French a close American ally.

[GregW]

Closer than the speculators on Wall Street and the international petroleum companies. Oh, wait. Corporations don't have allies, they only have interests.