Comments by "boz" (@BOZ_11) on "Yanis Varoufakis on the hidden power of the US dollar: how America's debt shapes the global economy" video.

  1. ​ @luciddoggo5094 all those countries I listed have had trade "deficits" (a trade deficit is a financial account SURPLUS, i.e. claims on foreign assets) for DECADES. Re-read this comment multiple times. Countries are not businesses
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  2. Trade deficit means nothing; this is a mercantilist perspective of national economics, but the trouble with it is that national accounting is nothing like a business. Rich countries with a trade deficit: USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, France, New Zealand. The wealth of a nation has nothing to do with its trade balance, but the value of the workers' productivity. Low wage countries tend be largely in manufacturing, and high wage nations tend to be predominantly in service industries.
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  3.  @luciddoggo5094  you're never going to understand that a trade deficit is a financial account surplus, despite my telling you twice. Adios
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  4.  @dhttube  “Think of central bank reserves in US dollar holdings as your own personal checking / savings account” – I can’t ex nihilo (from nothing) add deposits to my savings account, but if I’m a central bank (CB), I can print all the CB reserves I fancy, without limit (look at CB reserves at the Fed in 2006, then compare with 2009, they grew exponentially, printed out of nothing). Already you’re caught out in the conflation of business and Govt. “they have been running a trade surplus with the US for several decades and thereby build up a nice amount of US dollar holdings. So now, they can run a deficit with the US and the rest of the world for 10-20 years before they run out of US dollars piled up in their central bank” --- Whoopsie, Govts do not trade, private businesses trade. Businesses have NO ACCESS to Govt foreign reserves. Govt foreign reserves are built up slowly via the forex markets, nothing to do with export/import of goods. It’s just one bunch of printed money swapped for another bunch of printed money; the only thing “traded” is claims on future currency units in the event you have to defend your national currency on the forex markets (as Turkiye is having to do) “So the US can run huge trade deficits with the rest of the world to no limit because they have the exorbitant privilege of printing” ---Businesses can’t print money, and businesses have NO ACCESS to Govt foreign reserves; this is more conflation. However, one thing is right: the US military ensures international demand for USD through forcing the sale of oil internationally in USD; there is a process of de-dollarisation going on at the moment, so nothing is forever. I give them another 70 to 90 years on top
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