The US dollar is still officially the world's reserve currency but what is going to happens when the World leave it when their economy recover? American economists continue to preach that offshoring is good for the US economy and that war spending is keeping the economy going. The practitioners of supply and demand have yet to figure out that the dollar's supply in order to rescue the Banks is sinking the dollar and along with it American power.
The macho super patriots who supported the Bush regime still haven't caught on that US superpower status rests on the dollar being the reserve currency, not on a military unable to occupy Baghdad. If the dollar were not the world currency, the US would have to earn enough foreign currencies to pay for its 737 oversees bases, an impossibility considering America's $800 billion trade deficit.
When the dollar ceases to be the reserve currency, foreigners will cease to finance the US trade and budget deficits, and the American Empire along with its wars will disappear overnight. Perhaps Bush will be able to get a World Bank loan, or maybe one from the "Chavez bank," to bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Clearly, America's leader and America's currency are poorly regarded. Is there a solution?
Perhaps the answer lies in those 737 overseas bases. If those bases were brought home and shared among the 50 states, each state would gain 15 new military bases.
Imagine what this would mean: The end of the housing slump. A reduction in the trade deficit. And the end of the war on terror.
Who would dare attack a country with 15 new military bases in every state in addition to the existing ones? Wherever a terrorist turned, he would find himself surrounded by soldiers.
All of the dollars currently spent abroad to support 737 overseas bases would be spent at home. Income for foreigners would become income for Americans, and the trade deficit would shrink.
The impact of the 737 military base payrolls on the US economy would end the housing crisis and bring back the 140,000 highly paid financial services jobs, the loss of which this year has cost the US $42 billion in consumer income. Foreclosures and bankruptcies would plummet.
American generals used to say that the wars Bush started in the Middle East would take 10 years to win. On Oct. 31, 2007, General John Abizaid, former commander of US forces in the Middle East, put paid to that optimistic forecast. Speaking at Carnegie Mellon University, Gen. Abizaid said it would be 50 years before US troops can leave the Middle East. There is no possibility of the US remaining in the Middle East for a half century.
The Romans brought on their own demise, but it took them centuries. The Neocons finished America in a mere eight years.