The Global Minotaur America Europe And The Future Of The Global Economy

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1. PKopSep 2019
   To a large degree, they aren't accepting it. This is why around 2014 treasury holdings by rest of world stopped growing on net.

   Many governments/central banks are trying to exit the $ and UST's and are buying gold instead of treasuries.

   Ultimately, the US has quite a large amount of liabilities, and entitlement spending on retiring boomers coming due in the next few years. Currently, at the peak of the economic cycle, we are running $trillion deficits.

   Imagine what happens if there is a recession? Even if there isn't, these fiscal deficits, along with our large trade deficit mean:

   The rest of the world gives us real goods, we give them paper IOU's. The debt is not shrinking but is growing, and faster.

   So, they are not tolerating it. Problem is, in the petrodollar system, the reason this whole ponzi could occur is dollars were needed to buy oil. Post-71 Nixon shock, the $ was as good as oil. Saudi and others only sold oil for dollars putting a floor on the value of dollar and incentivizing both oil exporters and rest of world to want to hold dollars, thus recycling their surpluses into treasury debt to both fund their export economies and fund our consumption.

   This CANNOT continue because by definition it means rest of world works and produces for never ending, and ever growing, US consumption. Holding dollars, amidst a growing realization the Fed would have to monetize this debt and government would never pay it back in "real terms" has led many oil exporters to try to sell oil in other currencies, and countries generally to try to exit the dollar for trade.

   Iraq[0], Libya, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela[1]. Do we see a pattern of what happens to nations that try to do this? They either get regime-changed or become enemy number one for US government. Do you think it is a coincidence that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world and just happens to be the next country US is involved in pushing regime change (them or Iran)?

   To read about this system of petrodollar recycling, and how/when it was created in the early 70's because of collapse of Bretton Woods, check out an this excerpt[3] from excellent book "The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy" by Yanis Varoufakas former Greek minister of finance.

   Good thread [3] covering a broad summary of trade, the dollar, and petrodollar warfare [4]

   [0] http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Iraq/Iraq_dollar_vs_euro.h...

   [1] https://www.mintpressnews.com/petrodollar-warfare-the-common...

   [3] https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2011/02/10/surplus-recycling-...

   [3] https://twitter.com/TheSuperbubble/status/109944882078459904...

   [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrodollar_warfare

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2. siavoshDec 2016
   My personal picks as I continue to try to understand global economic trends since the 1980's through the prism of the 2008-crash:

   The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy by Yanis Varoufakis [1]

   The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future By Stiglitz, Joseph E. [2]

   The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War by Robert J. Gordon [3]

   1. https://www.amazon.com/Global-Minotaur-America-Economic-Cont...

   2. https://www.amazon.com/Price-Inequality-Divided-Society-Enda...

   3. https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-American-Growth-Princeton/d...

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3. taliesinbApr 2015
   Other Varoufakis videos that are worth watching if you want to know more about him and his views:

   * "The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy " -- about his book, a nice narrative of the last 100 years of the political economy -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEUWxNifJJ8

   * Richard D. Wolf's Global Capitalism update featuring Varoufakis -- Richard D. Wolf is always fun to watch, he looks like a Marxist version of Homeland's Saul Berenson -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc-iYzniEXM

   * "Confessions of an Errant Marxist" -- sort of Varoufakis's origin story -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3uNIgDmqwI

   * Bizarre BBC Newsnight interview with Varoufakis -- where you can see the BBC's idealogical function leaking through -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVpWOk7vu18

   It's evident from watching these that he is almost without exception the smartest person in every room he's in. And unlike most other economists, he is actually, you know, alive.

   Also, the obligatory Pettis articles that should be read by everyone who wishes to form an opinion about Greece's current position:

   * http://blog.mpettis.com/2015/02/syriza-and-the-french-indemn...

   * http://blog.mpettis.com/2015/02/when-do-we-decide-that-europ...

   And to encourage some cynanism about the neoliberal wisdoms, here's a contrarian economist called Ha-Joon Chang:

   * "23 Things they don't tell you about about Capitalism" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whVf5tuVbus

   And then of course at the end of the rainbow there is David Harvey:

   * "The 17 Contradictions of Capitalism", LSE -- https://youtu.be/AULJlwoI3TI

   We also recently had a spirited HN thread about Greece that had some good stuff in it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9314000

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4. grub5000Dec 2016
   > The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy by Yanis Varoufakis [1]

   Have you read "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?"? It's fantastic. Really helped shape my view before the EU Referendum here in the UK.

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