Claig ….. while I can see the point that ‘the U.S. empire’ could collapse, mostly under the sheer weight of National Debt, heaven knows why any ‘elite’ comes into play here, as is Iran ‘elite’, as whether we add the Lebanon, Bahrain or even Gaza to other countries affected, they are playing ‘the long game’, akin to a regional game of Pool, where they place their revolutionary ‘balls’ over various ‘pockets’ of trouble, fuelling tensions within the region.
Re the B.R.I.C. emerging nations, are you saying that anyone of them could replace the U.S. dollar, or even the Euro? Or are you confusing their wish to gain positive international influence by forming their own international agencies and spreading their wealth?
Re the ‘R’ in B.R.IC. Russia, would they be better placed to steamroll themselves into old members of the old Soviet USSR and not be challenged, if they had more global influence, and become ‘elite’ in your vocabulary.
But regarding the U.S. dollar, you don’t have to look far why those that have huge U.S. dollar reserves including U.S. Treasury bonds are concerned – but I find a view it is causing wars, frankly laughable.
‘The U.S. government Debt clock”
www.usgovernmentdebt.us/
The U.S. Federal debt is currently over $17.7 trillion repeat $17.7 trillion, which does not include State and other local debt, or ‘unfunded liabilities like Social Security and Medicare – which if mirrored the UK’s unfunded debt, that just comes out of our annual budgets when due e.g. U.K. Public Sector pensions (at over £1.2 tril is close to our near £1.4 trillion National Debt), the NET U.S. debt figure will be huge.
As ALL methods of reducing national debt i.e. spending cuts, tax rises on businesses and/or consumers will REDUCE national investment i.e. infrastructure & private sector increasing capacity, lowering economic growth and prosperity - IT BECOMES LONG TERM CURRENCY NEGATIVE.
Talk of a U.S.$ crash due to their debt has been around for decades, and as Democrat Obama who has refused to meaningfully tackle their national debt, causing the political impasse with the Republicans making domestic policy matters worse – a meaningful fall in the U.S. dollar has got ever closer.
Just imagine how higher that debt would have been if not for the tax receipts, cheaper price economic growth, thanks to the huge growth in Fracking.
A weak currency can be positive to any economy as in theory it reduces domestic imports and helps domestic exporters, the problem is that when the U.S.$ weakens or is thought to weaken, it drives up Commodity Prices, which are mainly priced in U.S.$ = potential global inflation.
But don’t panic though, in the U.S. there is quite a bit of debt reduction ‘low hanging fruit’, they just need a less divisive administration/President, to tackle it – and this plan would CUT a relatively easy $220 billion from defence (& attack) spending by 2023.
money.cnn.com/2013/04/18/news/economy/bowles-simpson-deficits/
A growing question in the U.S. SHOULD BE can they afford to be ‘the world’s policeman’, so LETTING THE WORLD GET ON WITH IT, could be getting ever closer and western governments will need to make up the financial/military shortfall to both ensure they can defend themselves in a more volatile world and ‘police’ others if the United Nations requests it.