pull down to refresh
0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 27 Sep \ parent \ on: Our Economy Has Never Needed an "Elastic" Currency econ
'President Trump has remade Washington’s role in Latin America with a force not seen in decades, deploying U.S. military and economic weight with abandon and treating the region as an exclusive sphere of influence.
No American president has exerted as much pressure on the region since the height of the Cold War, when Ronald Reagan focused his efforts there on battling left-wing Central American insurgencies and the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.
From the Mexican border to Patagonia, Trump is punishing adversaries with high tariffs, airstrikes and rhetorical broadsides while offering those he considers friends security aid and economic deals. One analyst called it, “The Donroe Doctrine,” a play on the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine guiding U.S. policy toward the region.
The region is crucial to the president’s goals of stopping migration and the flow of drugs into the U.S. while trying to counter China, which has deepened economic and diplomatic ties in Latin America the last two decades.
“We haven’t seen a U.S. president as brazen and as aggressive as Trump has been in Latin America,” said Michael Shifter, a senior scholar at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington policy group. “His mindset is that the region is the U.S.’s backyard and his strategic prerogative, in the name of protecting the homeland and boosting ‘America First.’ ”
Allies who flatter the president and align with his worldview—from Argentine President Javier Milei to El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele—are scoring deals and a warm embrace. Those who defy him—most notably Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva, Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro—find themselves in his crosshairs.'
Source- WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/trump-latin-america-migration-drug-trade-05dec866?
You live in USA and thus benefit from US Imperialism and resource hegemony over other countries. The US government does not just bully and tax its citizens it bullys and taxes people globally.
And you benefit from that.
The price you can charge for cleaning a car is higher because of US hegemony and imperialism.
Own it.
I don't claim one way or the other whether I personally benefit from imperialism or not. The math on that is besides the point. I'm just saying zero federal government would be more fair to everyone involved in general. I don't see why you have to make it personal.
Even if the U.S. government didn't exist, socialist regions would still end up poorer than the ones which embrace capitalism. You're aware of that, right? Or do you want to pretend that nationalization of industry is actually good economic policy? Do you think it's America's fault that Venezuela went to Hell?
reply
Re Venezuela it appears the current government there is corrupt although aside from that the economy is to a large extent limited in its potential by decades of capture by US oil corporates.
US imperialism began with Latin America and continues there to this day as its foundation...even as Trump cedes ground to China he signals his intention to retain hegemony over the Americas.
Venezuelas heavy crude can only be refined in the US and export via the Panama canal are blocked by US control of this strategic infrastructure.
China does present Venequela with an alternative market but before they could develop the required refining capacity for its heavy crude the US imperialists closed off access via Panama.
You can perhaps now see how governments and power projection and long term strategic positioning and control of infrastructure by governments is so important in terms of economic development and the wealth and prosperity of nations and their citizens.
It is not just 'free markets' because such things never exist in isolation from territorial governments.
reply
The most successful economies in history have been where good or at least competent governments work deliberately to support their merchants.
Examples are The British Empire, The USA since WW1 until the 1970s.
You might characterise these as socialist because in both cases government is active in both military power projection and diplomacy to enhance the commercial opportunities of its merchants internationally while also ensuring a strong and reliable legal system internally which enables capital markets, investment and construction of infrastructure which all combine to create wealth and prosperity greater than any anarchist 'free market' could without them.
Today the most successful economy globally is China, again a mixed economy where the government both consciously directs capital and strategic assets and infrastructure development and provides a stable internal rule of law and property rights which encourage free enterprise within limits deliberately preventing parasitic rentseeking, cartels and monopolies.
Today China dominates manufactured goods and commodity markets and is now challenging USA for global leadership as USA declines into a cesspit debt due to chronic trade and fiscal deficits.
reply