Michael Hudson - Super Imperialism

Michael Hudson - Super Imperialism, 1

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Super Imperialism
The Origin and Fundamentals
of U.S. World Dominance
Second Edition
Michael Hudson
Press
LONDON • STERLING, VIRGINIA
P
Pluto
First published 1972 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Second edition published 2003 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 22883 Quicksilver Drive,
Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Michael Hudson 2003
The right of Michael Hudson to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 1990 4 hardback
ISBN 0 7453 1989 0 paperback
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hudson, Michael, 1939–
Super imperialism : the origin and fundamentals of U.S. world
dominance / Michael Hudson.–– 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0–7453–1990–4 (hard : alk. paper)
1. United States––Foreign economic relations. 2. Imperialism. 3.
International finance. 4. United States––Foreign relations. I. Title:
Origin and fundamentals of U.S. world dominance. II. Title.
HF1455 H782 2002
337.73––dc21
2002006489
1098765432
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth EX10 9QG, England
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Towcester
Printed and bound in Canada by
Transcontinental Printing
Contents
Preface to the second edition, 2002
ix
Introduction
1
I. BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN WORLD ORDER: 1914–46
1. Origins of Intergovernmental Debt, 1917–21
39
2. Breakdown of World Balance, 1921–33
58
3. America Spurns World Leadership
80
4. Lend-Lease and Fracturing of the British Empire,
1941–45
119
5. Bretton Woods: The Triumph of U.S. Government
Finance Capital, 1944–45
137
6. Isolating the Communist Bloc, 1945–46
162
II. THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE
7. American Strategy within the World Bank
179
8. The Imperialism of U.S. Foreign Aid
217
9. GATT and the Double Standard
248
10. Dollar Domination through the International Monetary
Fund, 1945–46
265
III. MONETARY IMPERIALISM AND THE U.S. TREASURY BILL
STANDARD
11. Financing America’s Wars with Other Nations’ Resources,
1964–68
291
12. Power through Bankruptcy, 1968–70
309
13. Perfecting Empire through Monetary Crisis, 1970–72
328
14. The Monetary Offensive of Spring 1973
348
15. Monetary Imperialism: The Twenty-first Century
377
Notes
394
Index
413
“ . . .
with fraternity on your lips, you declare war against mankind
.”
Jeremy Bentham, addressing France’s National Convention
in 1793, urging it to “Emancipate Your Colonies:
Showing the Uselessness and Mischievousness
of distant Dependencies to an European State.”
Preface to the Second Edition
As of summer 2002 the U.S. Treasury is pursuing the same strategy of
“benign neglect” for its balance-of-payments deficit that it did thirty years
ago. The deficit that caused a global crisis in 1971 when its $10 billion rate
led to a 10 per cent dollar devaluation has now risen to hundreds of
billions of dollars annually, and is still rising. Treasury Secretary O’Neill
says he is not worried and that the situation does not call for any action,
at least not on the part of the United States.
This confronts Europe and Asia with a dilemma. If they let the U.S.
payments deficit drag the dollar down, this will give U.S. exporters a price
advantage. To protect their own producers, central banks must support the
dollar’s exchange rate by recycling their surplus dollars back to the United
States. This option obliges them to buy U.S. Government securities, as U.S.
diplomats have made it clear that to buy control of U.S. companies or even
to return to gold would be viewed as an unfriendly act.
As global investors move out of the sinking dollar, central banks hardly
would want to buy American stocks in any event. Norway suffered such
severe losses from recycling its North Sea oil earnings into the U.S. market
that by October 2001 the government felt obliged to inform local munici-
palities that they would have to contribute extra sums to their pension
funds. To make up for the U.S. market plunge, public support for Norwegian
museums, orchestras and other cultural organizations was cut back.
Unfortunately for the world’s central banks, buying U.S. Treasury IOUs
also is a losing proposition. The falling dollar erodes their international
value, causing Europe and Asia to lose over 10 per cent of the value of their
U.S. dollar reserves in 2002. Japan and China each have lost over $35
billion on their dollar holdings. These losses are the equivalent of a
negative interest rate.
The greatest loss, however, comes from the sterilized dollar balances
themselves. What can central banks do with their dollar inflows except lend
them back to the U.S. Treasury to help fund America’s own domestic budget
deficit? In fact, the larger the U.S. balance of payments grows, the more
dollars mount up in the hands of foreign to be recycled to finance the U.S.
budget deficit. These dollar holdings – in the form of Treasury bonds – have
become a seignorage tax levied by America on the world’s central banks.
ix
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