USA: IMPERIAL OVEREACH?

 

Down but not out...

The United States Congress is considering modifications about the law that authorize the legal debt ceiling of that country.

To be honest, that law is not the real problem, and worrying about it should be seen as irrelevant and a waste of time. The real problem is the growing debt itself and what to do about it. The US are already in default since January, and the Fed is just using tricks to keep things going.

The Americans seems to be too politically divided to be able to devise a long-range plan to manage that debt and to start reducing it. The rise of the US national debt is a long-standing problem, growing slowly in the shadows for decades, and the recent Covid-19 virus has greatly made things even worst, boosting enormously the outlay of public funds. Even if, admittedly, it was just for a few years, the sanitary crisis aggravated further a debt problem that is far from being limited to just the US.

With an actual (and very costly) war in Ukraine and a looming one (that can be even more costly, and can involve possibly the US in a direct manner) in Taiwan, America has fewer and fewer options, and it must also take into account the threat of diminishing financial and budgetary means, and the fact that a large part of the rest of the world is starting to think that China is a better bet in the long run, on economic matters.

Is the American Colossus vulnerable and a victim of imperial overreach? It is. It probably won't fall in pieces, at least not in the short- or medium-term, but it may well have to think again about its priorities, and possibly choose to concentrate on domestic issues, aiming to make its own house in order. A return to the traditional attitude of isolationism, as seen before World War 2, is not a total impossibility, it may even be a strong eventuality at this point.

Such a thing may have a lot of repercussions. It may bring the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the reunification of China, the militarization of the European Union, and the slow but real rejuvenation of the American giant, a country that still has many strengths but who need to heal, especially on the economic front and the social front.

America is deeply sick, but it is certainly not dead. Like a boxer, it is able to take a lot of pain, and blows, and hits, to the head and to the body, and still keep going, somehow, despite everything.

But it must face facts. In the long run, the US is likely to cease to be the most powerful country on Earth, that seems unavoidable.

Power is important, but it is not everything. La politique is very important, yes, of course, but it is not everything. Money, science, freedom, and many other things are important too, but peace is always better, when it is possible.

In the end, what can be more important than families, happy parents, healthy children, life itself?

Life must always prevail, no matter what.

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/08/debt-ceiling-us-biden-default