Why non Americans care about America

As a person that is not a citizen of the United States, as well as currently not residing in the US, though I have lived in the United States in the past, a question is oft posed to myself about why I care so much about the United States as compared to my own country (I have two citizenship’s, Canada and the United Kingdom, though I currently call Canada home and am unlikely to ever return to the UK to live).

In order to understand why those outside of the United States do actually care about the country, you need to understand the history of the infamous ‘financial industry’ and the role it plays in the global economy.

Over time, lets say the last 150 years, the center of the global economy changed from one centered defacto in London to one logistically centered in New York. Note that not only has the actual center changed, but also the hold that the center has on the industry itself has changed. When Britain was the global superpower, the hold that London had on the global economy was one based on reputation. It wasn’t based on logistics.

Starting after WW I, where a huge part of that transition occurred because of the cost of the war on the British economy and overall wealth, and being completed after WW II, with the commencement of the Bretton Woods monetary system era (even though we are no longer on the gold standard, the basic structure of the monetary system that was created by the Bretton Woods Accord still remains), the transition was complete. The United States, post World war II was inserted not just as the defacto central economy for the globe, but it was inserted as the logistical one.

Nothing illustrates this better than the role that the US Dollar plays in the global economy. Any currency conversion that happens in the world will always be transacted through the US Dollar. To convert from the Canadian Dollar to the GB Pound Sterling will first require a conversion to the US Dollar and then the US dollar to Sterling. (If one goes to a currency kiosk or a bank to convert, then you may not see this, but that is actually what is happening).

This is just one relatively simple to explain to explain, but there are so many other aspects of the global economy that depend on the United States.

Some may ask, why should ‘we’ (being the United States) be responsible for this. Well that was the Faustian bargain that the leaders of the United States made during the Roosevelt and Truman presidencies after the war, and to a lesser extent previous administrations. This was the ‘demand’ of the United States government, and since the United States at the time was really the only functioning economy of the world at the time, other countries acquiesced. (yes, it’s a little more complicated than that).

Regardless of how this ended up being the structure of the current economy, this creates a problem for the world. A very big one. If the United States economy collapses, because some idiot ‘republican’ congressman follows through on his threat to shut down the government unless the PPACA (the REAL name of Obamacare) is de-funded, then not only does the US economy suffer, but the global economy will with that one action collapse. Any trade between any countries other than the US will collapse (except perhaps trade within the Euro bloc), if only because the financial markets will literally be frozen.

That makes the ENTIRE WORLD a stakeholder in what happens within the US, whether Americans like it or not.