I think the assumption you make (in bold) is wrong. A major portion of imports in the States are due to its lack of energy resources (this respresents a huge turnaround from the 60s and 70s when they had an abundant supply of oil). Without oil, the whole suburban way of life that has developed in the States over the previous decades comes to a grinding halt (in other words, they have no easy substitute for this resource so they will be forced to continue high levels of importing at least in the medium term). If the oil producing countries break away from a declining dollar, oil inflation in the US may even force imports up.that is not going to happen, it may continue to weaken though, if it were to collapse then no currency would be safe, it would only collapse as a result of a worldwide financial collapse, the weaker the dollar goes the smaller the Us spends on imports (foreign travel etc) and the more foreigners buy of US products , boeing is benefitting considerably from the dollar weakness (one of the US largest exporters), the more attractive american assets become to foreigners, there maybe a few dodgy banks and financial companies, but they wont bring down the american economy, its industrial base will strengthen and will overcome any weakness caused by dodgy financials.
Without oil, the whole suburban way of life that has developed in the States over the previous decades comes to a grinding halt (in other words, they have no easy substitute for this resource so they will be forced to continue high levels of importing at least in the medium term).
They didn't appropriate the Iraqi oil - they still have to pay for it. They merely secured the supply (arguably).What about all that Iraqi oil? - That should keep them going a few more years. Then there's Iran. They didn't spend half a trillion for notions of 'freedom'.
I think the assumption you make (in bold) is wrong. A major portion of imports in the States are due to its lack of energy resources (this respresents a huge turnaround from the 60s and 70s when they had an abundant supply of oil). Without oil, the whole suburban way of life that has developed in the States over the previous decades comes to a grinding halt (in other words, they have no easy substitute for this resource so they will be forced to continue high levels of importing at least in the medium term). If the oil producing countries break away from a declining dollar, oil inflation in the US may even force imports up.
I don't think anyone was claiming that Europe is an economic wonderland, however nobody can dispute the fact that the States has a much higher dependence on oil. On a per capita basis the States consumes over twice as much oil than that in Europe. If you compare the layout of the average American city to that of the average European city, especially taking in to consideration the provision of public transport, it's not hard to see why this might be.this is hardly unique to the US, europe is a first world economy and uses an awful lot of imported energy (especially from russia), alot of articles about suburban life etc are very american centric, this is because we are english speaking therefore alot of reading material about oil dependancy etc comes from an american viewpoint, there are probably similar german articles on german dependance and french dependance etc but they are not referred to here because we read the american ones. In other words europe is not an economic wonderland that is immune to the problems facing america (which are essentially caused by globalisation and the addition of billions of people to the global economy)
I don't think anyone was claiming that Europe is an economic wonderland, however nobody can dispute the fact that the States has a much higher dependence on oil. On a per capita basis the States consumes over twice as much oil than that in Europe. If you compare the layout of the average American city to that of the average European city, especially taking in to consideration the provision of public transport, it's not hard to see why this might be.
Also, don't assume that all the posters here are monolingual. From the articles I've read there appears to be a trend developing where Europeans are focusing on environmental issues such as pollution, renewable energy and safe water resources, while the States are focusing on oil and terrorism.
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