All this shit didn't even have to happen but for the sack of rotten oranges posing as the president. WTF.
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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We need to fix the system that allowed him to become president. Both the electoral structure and the right-wing propaganda machine. And the useless opposition.
It'd be nice if the USA could set its own house in order.
Yes that's exactly what the thing you replied to said thank you for your contribution
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Let's not forget outside influences in elections.
That would be the education system, and Republicans have spent decades doing everything they can to destroy it.
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Correct me if I'm wrong here, but aren't we locked in a weird cycle where the US sells its debts to continue functioning, but then much of the system relies on the revenue generated from those debts being paid by the US.
If a sell off were to begin the price of bonds would plummet. The first countries to sell would be least impacted, but eventually the later countries are in bad shape. You can say sell at the "exact same time" but that's not really how financial markets work.
I suppose the US is still more reliant on these bonds, but I'd imagine a crashed dollar would have pretty large ramifications globally.
Of course of of this will happen anyway if the US decides to invade Greenland.
I can see where countries no longer invest in US bonds, but may be forced to hold onto these to not take a budgetary hit.
That's how it could create a runaway snowball effect. The first few countries to sell off their US bonds would be in the best position, after that the bonds' value starts to dip. Other countries see that and decide to sell off now before it gets worse, and the value dips further, accelerating as more and more countries realize they need to dump their US bonds asap cause it's only going to keep plummeting. The last ones to notice or act on it will be stuck with worthless bonds that will never recover their value.
That's how it would result in total economic collapse for america, and knowing that the sooner you drop the hot potato the better is what will create the rush to sell them off as soon as possible. How many initial sell-offs it would take to precipitate this effect is the question.
And since the crashed dollar will lower the purchasing power of anyone whose wealth or income is primarily in US dollars, anyone who drops these assets ahead of the game will be in the best shape. That's why a lot of US banks are currently buying gold; it's very likely to hold its value and is a very stable asset.
Assuming countries drop their USD-based assets before the crash, the relative values of their currencies should remain similar. For instance, the EUR to GBP conversion rate wouldn't change much. The more heavily invested in USD a nation's economy, the more detrimental the impact would be on their currency.
Commodity prices measured in USD for example would skyrocket, because the relative value of the USD would be crashing, but any currency that untethers from the US economy in time should remain stable relative to commodity prices, or possibly see some advantage if it gains value as a result of the USD crashing.
This is all contingent on countries dropping their US bonds and other assets, of course. The more dependent their wealth is on the US economy, the more detrimental the USD crash-out will be to that country and its currency. All the more incentive to be among the first to drop their US assets.
Even if they decide collectively not to do this, the AI bubble is going to burst sooner or later, and the further they kick the can down the road the worse the crash is going to be. Along with other trends like the US reversal of green energy initiatives while the fossil fuel industry is beginning to show cracks, the impending collapse of oil prices, etc., investing in USD is just really bad fiscal policy. People are only still doing it because they believe they can hold the jenga tower up long enough to grow their portfolios just a little more. Their greed will kick them in the ass if they hedge their bets too far...
I believe this ignores the ripple effects of a crashed US dollar. Unfortunately world economies are intertwined in a way we've never seen before.
I don't think either the Euro, USD, or Pound could collapse without dragging down the others indirectly. There's a reason to 08 crash was felt worldwide.
Don't get me wrong it would be the worst for the United States and any nation that fixes their currency to the dollar. But probably quite painful to downright disastrous for many other nations.
Of course all of that happens anyway if Trump does the worst of what he says.
In my view, that can only be mitigated by detangling other economies from the US. Selling off treasury bonds is one step. Increasing tech/data sovereignty is another, as well as shifting reliance to more local supply chains and manufacturing. And moving assets to the European market (in Europe's case).
Any steps to boost sovereignty and independence help to reduce reliance on the US, and mitigate the impact of a US economic crash. The lesson learned from 08 should be not to depend too heavily on US bubble economies.
Besides, the US hardly manufactures anything. They export corn, soybeans, petroleum, and cloud-based software. And US treasury bonds, whose only value is that people agree that they hold value. What happens when people suddenly realize or decide that they don't?
Grains and legumes can be ground elsewhere; arguably better. Countries already are and must continue to reduce their dependencies on fossil fuels; petroleum will not be a major commodity for much longer, no matter how the industry kicks and screams and colludes with the US government for corrupt advantage. Lastly, the shift to tech and data sovereignty must happen anyway, and is happening. The sooner other nations get their data off US-based cloud infrastructure, the better off they'll be.
There's no downside, other than reducing one's dependency too slowly and being among the last to jump ship before it sinks.
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Yeah..... The really bad part is that it would be most harsh on countries with unstable currencies. The USD is basically the foreign currency reserve that backs most poorer nations currency.
Countries could slowly start exiting the US bond market, but they would have to find a replacement, and nothing has been as stable or financially open to scrutiny as the USD.
Even if more countries switched over the yuan it'd have to be a slow process. There would also be a lot more blind trust involved since there's a lot of things done behind the curtain between the national bank and local government banks.
If Trump gets his wish and co-ops the Fed, they might as well start dumping USD. It's going to be on a wild ride after that.
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Every sale requires a buyer
A treasury bond is basically an IOU: the treasury is legally bound to buy it back.
Maybe it's pedantic, but the Treasury doesn't really buy them back. A Treasury bond is basically "the Treasury will give the holder of this bond X dollars at Y date".
Nothing forces the Treasury to buy bonds from the market, but they are bound to pay the specified amount on the specified date.
The problem is, in a bond market collapse, inflation is going to skyrocket, and the bond holder has no option other than to take that hit because the payout is fixed.
That's what I meant by IOU. The treasury gives them the money, they return the bond, and it goes in the shredder. Of course it happens electronically these days, but before the internet there was a physical sheet of paper that was exchanged.
So instead of renewing/rolling over the bonds, countries can decide to collect the money owed and the US treasury can't say no.
If they're selling on the secondary market before the time is up, yes that's different. But if everyone decides to sell then supply outpaces demand and the value drops. Then nobody buys new bonds from the US and they still can't borrow, and have to default on their loans.
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Sell the bonds to whom, Ben? Asian Aquaman?
I understood that reference
Worth sharing: William Spaniel on YouTube is a political scientist, has written books about this kind of stuff, and REALLY knows what he's talking about. He discusses world events like this, and breaks them down really well so it's approachable and understandable for a clueless layman like myself. His videos are short and to the point, and can be listened to like a podcast instead of watched.
He mostly talks about wars, how and why they start, what is likely or unlikely to happen, things like that.
His latest video from yesterday about exactly how America's Greenland ideas would backfire: https://youtu.be/mQGMGnhC-NA
exactly how America’s Greenland ideas would backfire
He sounds like a smart guy, but people keep treating this insanity as if it's not intentionally destructive. It's not backfiring if the point was to cause division and chaos.
The goal of a system is what it does, and everything. But I doubt most people participating in this are accelerationists.
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This would be like taking Musk's money by making him sell his stocks. Once the market is flooded with paper, it becomes less and less valuable, very quickly. Musk doesn't actually have hundreds of billions anymore than the UE has trillions in US treasuries.
I know that's ridiculously oversimplified, but someone has to buy those bonds, and the later you are to the selling table, the less you get.
Yep, the massive bond dump is just a meme. It's financial MAD and would destroy the the finances of the countries selling off. Nobody wants it.
Finally, somebody with understanding of how bonds REALLY operate and their purpose. What is in all those memes, are just “wet dreams”, that are far from reality.
Trump admin: let's crash the global economy because it will force an asset bubble onto the EU, a crisis that will benefit the most wealthy like 8 people on the planet while harming most everyone else. This will solidify whoever can deliver this gift as the members of the ruling class of their respective hemispheres. Our military power will ensure we can just take what we want from whoever we want, destroy the EU as a regulatory hegemon, so the international ruling class can raid their social democracies like we did social services in the USA. It will also strike a blow to China whose relative strength is propped up by some amount of control over their economy, allowing them to avoid severe financial crashes, even though they have a number of huge bubbles within their own economy that might be forced to burst! Disunity among nations is a boon to big money, and we will all become kings
EU: bored after reading the first line Lets destroy the global economy first!
Guys its gonna be a wild fuckin ride, buckle up
I'm betting it'll go the other way- the USA declares insolvency (cloaked in freedom or whatever, of course) in the farce version of the Nixon shock and Japan's and EU economies implode from the massive loss of value on the books. China will be ok though, and Russia too since they have pretty much USA proofed their economy (it's shit, but it's still USA proof... so shit+).
It's economic warfare and the Epstein Empire is winning. Liquidating treasuries would definitely be a way to fight back, but will anyone have the guts to do it? I'm betting no.
Edit: that $2.34 trn figure includes the UK (about $750 bn), and Starmer is such a basketcase you can't count on him to do anything except twiddle his thumbs. Even without the UK though it's a massive figure.
Yup, sadly I think this is where we are going, Trump will say that Usa won't pay anything anymore, and that it is the rest of the world that should owe him trillions, killing the dollar, the world economy and maybe launching a new crypto trump coin. All this during a climate crisis he does everything to make worse.
I wish an action like this would actually change things in the US, but it wouldn't.
The American people would continue to suffer and die--the most vulnerable and already marginalized first. Conservatives will get more hostile toward everyone else because of scarcity. They'll start shooting people at Wal-Mart over bread.
The rich will just white-knuckle grip their off shore bank accounts and move elsewhere.
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Bitcoin is not a real currency, and anyone suggesting it as a new standard should be mocked. It's too clunky, too slow, and too prone to fraud and theft. The only real uses for Bitcoin are gambling, fraud, and buying drugs.
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It seems very obvious to me it will either be the Euro or the Chinese Yuan(?)
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It’s a striking image, but it’s worth remembering how interconnected global finance really is—big moves tend to ripple, not flip a switch overnight.
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