
America might wield its ultimate weapon of mass disruption - known
https://www.economist.com/business/2020/08/15/how-america-might-wield-its-ultimate-weapon-of-mass-disruption
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submeta
The US is pushing against every nation, except IL. Even old partners from five
eyes are not save anymore. Recent pushes against Canada demonstrate that. -
The rest of the world is constantly shocked about US actions against almost
every nation or institution (UN, WHO, ICJ, many more). Slowly they realize
that they need to build new alliances that are not only in favor of the US.
China sees the vacuum and is being pushed in new directions. Latest move: In
the Middle East, cooperating with Iran, shocking Israel with that move. - The
US are hurting themselves in the long run by trying to make politics by brute
force.

~~~
fermienrico
The next president is going to have to go around and sew broken relationships
the current administration has torn apart.

~~~
cstross
Bad news: people outside the US have memories longer than 4 (or 8) years.

Even if the next POTUS _does_ make nice, there will thereafter always be the
memory of how rapidly Trump tanked the USA's relationships. As a result,
nobody will be able to count on US cooperation/amity for long term planning
purposes without building in contingency plans for a "what if the next POTUS
reverses course abruptly" situation.

It _might_ be fixable with a constitutional rebalancing to reduce the ability
of the president to rule as an executive without congressional oversight, but
that hardly seems likely short of there being a revolution or civil war.

So US "soft power" is probably irrevocably damaged, at least for the next 8-20
years.

~~~
Gibbon1
Yeah no one's going to forget that a big chuck of the US voted for the current
administration and will vote for them again. And they especially aren't going
forget that the majority of business leaders are supporting the current
administration. That includes all FAANG companies.

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avmich
China government is eager to try following the steps of USSR with better
starting conditions - at least some of them. We can turn to history and see
what steps were taken in Cold War and how they turned out to have some rough
prediction of results today.

~~~
Fjolsvith
Everyone knows how that turned out for the USSR.

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User23
> And it, too, has a last-ditch deterrent: selling its $1.1trn stock of
> American treasury bills, equivalent to 4% of the total outstanding.
> America’s highly liquid bond markets may prove capable of absorbing the
> shock.

The Fed would be forced to buy those bonds to maintain its interest rate
targets. And since the Fed by law must remit its profits to the Treasury, the
end result would be the net interest rate on that debt would drop from
whatever it is now to zero. Hardly what I'd call a crushing blow. Imagine
trying to threaten your banker by telling him if he's not careful you're going
to move your money from your savings to your checking account.

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raverbashing
People are overlooking one important point here

The system is a detail here, a major one sure, but the main thing is that the
Yuan is not fully convertible

Cutting China off means that either they turn the Yuan into a fully
convertible currency or they'll use something else (limited choices here)

Cutting China off: US sellers can't pay China. Will they cut everybody else
from transacting with China? I think that China would see this as
justification for very harsh actions.

Funny thing is, if China is forced to make their currency convertible, this
will result in a more Open China, not less. Weird times we're in

~~~
onepointsixC
A more open China would mean trillions more in capital flight, a complete non
starter for the CCP. If you genuinely believe that there is even a chance of a
more open China, you have no been paying attention to the actions of the
emperor for life.

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adammunich
Won't this just encourage China to make their own system like they're doing
with computer chips now?

~~~
mola
Maybe, and if they succeed, what will the US do then? This is a terrifying
path.

~~~
justaguy88
Just another cold war

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ed25519FUUU
What is a Cold War called when only one side is playing? Because that’s been
the history for the last three decades.

~~~
crakenzak
not only one side is playing. China has a history of blatant violation of
copyright law (helping Chinese companies steal research & tech that US
companies spent billions of R&D money on) and using that to attempt to
undercut US companies.

China also constantly bans US companies[1] from accessing Chinese customers
(eg. Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter etc).

It's imperative that the US castrates China & CCP and doesn't allow it to
spread its toxic influence further.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_ma...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_mainland_China)

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OliverJones
After the first Gulf War, the attempted embargo on oil from Iraq led to a
limited market in which oil was priced in Euros. That was bad for the US.

An attempt to cut China off from the USD international payments system will
lead to a parallel system denominated in some other currency, possibly
Remnimbi. That will be bad for the US too.

Not for nothing they call Afghanistan the Graveyard of Empires.

~~~
onepointsixC
The Chinese cannot lead with a RMB system which maintains the capital controls
which they currently enforce. For an RMB system to take hold it needs to be
freely exchangeable, and that would lead to trillions in additional capital
flight from China. A complete non starter for the CCP.

The fact is that the dollar is king. Even the BRI, which many describe as
China's master plan to influence the world, are denoted in Dollars.

~~~
president
Correct, this is why it is reported that China and other nations like Iran are
trying to create an alternative currency to sidestep dollar restrictions.

~~~
onepointsixC
And that won't much more useful to them than the RMB. The Saudi's, whom supply
a significant percentage of China's oil, don't want RMB nor some new currency
which has the Iranians involved. The Saudi's don't buy as much from China as
China buys from them. So they don't want to be stuck with billions of a
currency they can't use for anything. But dollars? They can use to that to buy
whatever they want from whomever they want.

That's because USD is used one one side 88% of all FX trades[1]. If you were
going to buy something from another country you already were going to use
dollars.

[1]:
[https://stats.bis.org/statx/srs/table/d11.3](https://stats.bis.org/statx/srs/table/d11.3)

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known
[https://archive.vn/YJrfN](https://archive.vn/YJrfN)

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ntsplnkv2
This would just hasten the demise of the already broken US.

Lot's of silent downvotes - I'm happy to debate, do not be afraid to comment
and tell me what you disagree with.

~~~
spiderfarmer
The Covid crisis showed perfectly just how broken the US is. The country in
its current state is hopelessly divided, terribly corrupt and it doesn’t have
a functioning government or healthcare system. Politicians and civilians seem
to pride themselves in making dumb and arrogant statements that show their
lack of knowledge and experience. Democracy seems on the chopping block too.
Trump is a major cause of this broken image, but for my generation it really
started with the potential vice president Sarah Palin.

As a European I can say that the only people who still look up to the USA as a
great country are the people who base their views on Hollywood instead of the
news.

~~~
dfsegoat
I Love America. I don’t think the problems you describe are unique to the US.

> _‘and it doesn’t have a functioning government or healthcare system’_

Can you elaborate here? I can have no job or health insurance, and I can
obtain treatment at the hospital.

Likewise, I participate in city council and roundtables with city and state
officials. They listen to the community and policy changes are affected based
on that. Govt seems to work pretty well locally. Federal govt is not relevant
at that level.

Could it all be better? Sure. But your hyperbole is a bit much.

~~~
newacct583
> I can have no job or health insurance, and I can obtain treatment at the
> hospital.

For emergency care, yes. Not for an MRI or a hip replacement or dialysis or
physical therapy or cancer treatments or prostheses or cataract surgery or...

This is this weird myth that won't die. It's absolutely true that emergency
rooms are universally required to treat anyone who walks in the door. It's
also true that ER care makes up something like 3% of US health care delivered.

~~~
alcatrash
"I can have no job..." 50 million people in the US are on Medicare or
Medicaid, and can and do absolutely receive those services, based on age or
income level. The ones who cannot are those whose income is too high for those
service and choose to forgo or cannot afford health insurance.

~~~
katbyte
And then pay deductibles and co pays and god forbid your out of network.. your
making excuses for a broken system which most of the 1st world surpasses in
almost every way

~~~
alcatrash
I'm not trying make excuses for a broken system. I'm just trying to add some
information that the poster I was replying to may have lacked. I'm not making
a value judgement. Those on medicare/medicaid generally have low to no
deductibles and co-pays. Those with private insurance may have large
deductibles and out of pocket expenses. I certainly do, but I have multiple
people in my household with chronic health issues.

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olivermarks
This is like the economic policy of the Hells Angels, borrow vast amounts of
money then freeze out, ostracize and threaten. We already have the splinternet
evolving fast and Chinese style surveillance in North America. The dollar as
reserve currency remains omnipotent and this is naked imperialism imo

~~~
olivermarks
'Naked imperialism' wasn't intended to bash the USA, what I MTSW we have come
to a point of naked imperialism between the two superpowers: China vs the
offshore imperialists who control the USD

