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on their own , but they no longer come to Washington as suppli cants.
T he ri se and fall of the doll ar is a condensed sta tement of our entire
global pos iti on (God may or may no t be a structuralist, but He is
almos t certainl y an international banker ). When the United Sta tes was
the domin ant world power, American business used doll ars to buy raw
materi als and factori es abroad. The American multinational firms
exported producti on and jo bs (sometimes) repatria ted profits. T o make
our exports competiti ve, we devalued the do ll ar, but that in turn
increased the pri ce of raw ma teri a ls (above all , oil ).
We could a ttempt to recoup, economicall y, on a world scale in one
of two ways. Th e first would be to sta tion forces, larger in number than
ever before, in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast-to ensure
our access to raw materi als and pro tect our allies. The economi c cos t
mi ght we ll increase infl a ti on and decima te our producti ve resources
still furth er. The political bill , a t home and abroad, might be imposs i–
bl e to pay. T he second would be to inform the West Europeans and the
Japanese tha t we will no longer shield them, militaril y. We would save
enormo us sums and cause them to divert resources from civil to
milita ry producti on . Suppose, however, tha t they negoti a ted a long–
term agreement with the Sovi et Uni on-and increased their competi–
ti ve effi ciency?
T here is no easy or obvious so luti on to these dil emmas. T he
domes ti c economy is ti ed to an intern a ti onal one whi ch is part of an
unsta bl e world military and politi cal sys tem. The Sovi et bl oc is also
part o f tha t sys tem-i s it no t sixty billi on doll ars in debt to Ameri can
and Wes t European banks? Default could begin the ultima te cri sis of
capita li sm-but in th a t case, where would the Soviet bl oc purchase
techno logy? No doubt, we could reduce our dependence on oil-by
large-scale in vestment in publi c transport and by resettling our popu–
lation in citi es, emptying the suburbs. At any ra te, it is clear that if we
are to begin to master these p ro blems, we sh all have to develop a new
kind of economi c pl anning.
If
tha t is to be compa tibl e with the
maintenance of Ameri can democracy, we need the publi c control of
producti on . T h e simplifi ca ti on s of those who think the market th e
hi ghest stage in human social evoluti on begin to look very simpl e,
indeed.
Simplifi cati ons abo und. Henry Ki ss inger, as hi s power eroded,
all owed himself a denuncia ti on of our businessmen in terms he usually
reserved fo r hi s criti cs. The bu sinessmen , he compl ained, put trade
before the na ti onal interest. Wo rse, they did not accept hi s definiti on o f
that interest. Now tha t the Ameri can members of the Tril ateral
