Jim,
Sorry to say it, but most of your point-scoring response is irrelevant to the case I am making. Your relevant bit is a little rhetoric: "have you heard of multiplier effects? accelerator effects? have you heard that (compared to other individual economies) the US economy has a disproportionate effect on the world economy?" Of course, I know about the concept of multiplier effects and accelerator effects. But now explain to me how, when the average rate of industrial profit drops a few percent across some years, the whole economy goes into a whammy such as the one in 2008/2009. And, explain why the average rate of industrial profit is falling, when the observed average rate of industrial profit is actually rising! The European economy is actually larger than the US economy, but usually exerts its global influence with a lot less noise. Carchedi and Altvater are among the very few Left theorists I know of who describe EU imperialism. The only "disproportionate effect" of the USA on the world economy has nothing much to do with production, per se, but concerns: - the fact that New York and Chicago host global financial centres. - that the US government with its enormous military apparatus acts as a "global policeman". - that the USD is the main hard currency used in world trade. - that the USA has been the principal beneficiary of numerous "free trade" agreements (well, that is in dispute). J.
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