There have now been two op-eds in the Washington Post about the spectre of 'dollarization,' which means the adoption of the U.S. dollar by Latin/South American countries as their regular currency. Supposedly it's been talked up by the imminent Secy. Summers, among others. Argentina was mentioned as a likely, willing candidate. (Quebec?) I'm a little surprized nobody has mentioned this here. Maybe it's too improbable. It certainly boggles my mind. It seems like a pretty tangible expansion of the U.S. economic order, narrowly construed in terms of a trade block (vis-a-vis the EU and the evolving Japanese co-prosperity sphere). It likens the Fed to the Bundesbank, though if some national working class below the equator goes on strike, nobody in Washington will give a shit. War is a sideshow, albeit a bloody one. It allows us to go through old and familiar motions. But finance is where the action is, IMO. mbs
