Vi, you're definitely into numbers, but when I discuss the American economy with others, especially older people, I often get a very different view.
Everybody seem to agree that USA spends too much money and needs to raise taxes and lower public spending. However, much of the trust in international economy is built on top of American and British institutions, and there is no real alternative.
The Yen is not an option. The Euro is still an experiment. The Chinese still have 2/3 of their population living at a very poor level, and there seems little reason to believe that they can provide a trustworthy, international currency in my lifetime.
In other words, USA will continue to own the currency that is the center of attention.
What is your point of view on this?
By the way, I had a peculiar problem today. I was going shopping, and I had no coin for the shopping cart. I thought I'd better go to the supermarket kiosk and change a note to coins, but then I found out that my wallet didn't contain any local currency, but only U.S. dollars from my last trip... which is kind of worthless in that situation, so no shopping cart for me. |
