WHERE IS THE 2.2 TRILLION DOLLARS FOR THE STIMULUS BILL COMING FROM?

The U.S.’s dominant role in global capitalism works to its advantage. That’s because the printing of 2.2 trillion dollars for the Stimulus Bill has less of an inflationary effect than it ordinarily would have. The inflationary effect of emission of new currency is diffused and all those countries with international reserves in dollars and the holders of U.S. government bonds are also paying the consequences in that the value of their dollars gets depreciated. Basically, our Western allies have made a tacit agreement with the U.S. over the years. Washington serves as policeman of the world and in general plays the leadership role in defense of global capitalism in return for acceptance of the dollar as the international currency. How long will this relationship last? With Trump’s America First and isolationist stance, Washington is calling on NATO and Japan to pay more for military at the same time that those nations get more and more fed up with Washington’s repugnant stands (eg. suspension of payment to the World Health Organization, tearing up the Iranian nuclear agreement, Trump’s aggressive, jingoistic rhetoric, etc.). That in the long run is going to mean greater support for moving away from the dollar. These are tensions that will only intensify in time.