Is the U.S. Monetary Empire in its Death Throes?

 By David Starr

 

As history has shown, and repeated, various empires have gone through a process of birth, ascendency, a “glorious” rise and peak, a decline, and a fall. Is the United States monetary empire any different? At the rate things are going in the USA and around the world, the answer is, no, it is repeating a process of previous empires.

 

Particularly after World War II, the USA reached new heights to become the leader of the “free” world. (Free for whom to do what?) The U.S. population enjoyed a decent standard of living, a degree of democracy, and more or less good standing worldwide, depending on what nation or bloc we’re talking about. There was, after all, the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.

 

The Cold War supposedly ended with the official dissolving of the USSR in December 1991. The USA, however, not only did not dissolve, it picked up where it left off before the existence of the USSR, when Manifest Destiny was imposed on the world, i.e., a fanatical imperial expansion. That began the ascendency of the U.S. empire and, to reiterate, became the worldwide leader after World War II.

 

Now, the empire is in crisis, with a major threat to the degree of democracy that exists, the violating of the U.S. Constitution, excessive greed widening the gap between the billionaire class and the working class, and various sorts of criminal activity presently perpetrated by the Trump regime. This is, after all, a billionaire’s regime; and a billionaire’s dream that has supposedly come true.

 

Meanwhile, most of the rest of the world has turned away from the USA, as the latter’s actions have prompted rebellion in the Global South and elsewhere. An issue that has especially been fueling anger is Israel’s criminal aggression against Palestinians with many protests and other acts of rebellion in the USA and worldwide. And the USA is just as guilty of war crimes as Israel, where the empire continues to back Israel by sending more weapons to the “Holy Land” that are used to kill more Palestinians.

 

The U.S. monetary empire does have an historical record of supporting right-wing and neoliberal tyrants for decades in the Global South especially. With invasions, occupations and bombings, U.S. leaders/officials and their supporters have caused cruelty and hardship in other countries. One could even dare say that the U.S. empire has committed attempted genocide in countries like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and other countries of the Global South, with millions of deaths; and the committing of atrocities like torture and the attempts to humiliate and threaten the very identity of local populations.

 

At this point, it should be mentioned that the U.S. has had numerous rebellions by U.S. citizens against the empire’s objectives, whether it be domestic or in foreign policy. Many U.S. citizens have played important roles in opposing their country’s role in the position of being a monetary empire. 

 

Today, due to the Trump regime’s criminal policies, many U.S. citizens have become disillusioned and many countries have turned away from the USA and its attempts at continuing empire. On Secular Talk, host Kyle Kulinski ran a segment detailing other countries’ and people’s reactions and actions taken in an effort to establish a multi-polar world, and to disregard the current unipolar world the USA is leading.

 

Further, economic and international affairs professor Richard Wolff, host of Democracy at Work and Economic Update, was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! on the apparent decline of the U.S. empire. 

 

Wolff asserts, “The American economy is in trouble. The American empire is in decline. We don’t want to discuss it in this country. We engage in denial. And instead, we are striking out at other people – a sad way to handle a decline. What’s being done is to say we have difficulties, but they’re all somebody else’s fault, and we’re going to solve it by punishing them.

 

“The United States does not have the power it had in the 20^th century. It is not in the position it seems to imagine itself.”

 

Wolff spoke about Trump, saying, “The biggest single thing that Trump did in his first presidency was the tax cut of December 2017. An when the tax cut was written into law, it had a sunset. It expires this year, 2025. If that expiration is allowed to happen, corporations and the rich, who were the big beneficiaries back then, will face a tax [increase]. He doesn’t want to do that, because that’s his base, that’s his donor support. He doesn’t want to have those taxes go back up.”

 

Wolff speaks about Vietnam, “which got a very heavy whack. I mean, is there no recognition of what the United States did to that country?” 

 

The current situation is in “a change. This is a sign to the world that as the United States empire declines, this is a nasty piece that’s going to, you know, gesture and thrash around, doing damage everywhere, as it copes with its own decline.”

 

In conclusion, Wolff says, “The world is changing. And the United States could cope. But as with alcoholism, you have to admit you have a problem, before you’re in a position to solve it. We have a nation that does not yet want to face what this all adds up to.”

 

The following is worth quoting. It’s from a publication called Pearls and Irritations, and written by Kari McKern, a retired public servant and librarian and IT specialist. McKern writes, “Internally, the American republic finds itself in a state of advanced decomposition masked by the pageantry of federal continuity. The legislative branch performs its traditional role of inertia, while the executive oscillates between authoritarian fantasy and bureaucratic chaos. The American political system is being gamed by a ruling elite that has successfully divorced performance from consequence.”

 

Yes, that is the United States monetary empire. And its decline is probably a sign of real change not just in the USA, but worldwide. A multi-polar world is possible.