Author(s): PHILLIPS Kevin

American

Kevin Phillips describes the consequences of misguided US economic policies, its mounting debt, collapsing housing market, threatened oil, and the end of American domination of world markets. America's current challenges (and failures) run striking parallels to the decline of previous leading world economic powers - especially the Dutch and the British. 'Bad money' refers to a new phenomenon in wayward megafinance - the emergence of a US economy that is globally dependent and dominated by hubris-driven financial services. Also 'bad' are the risk miscalculations and strategic abuses of new multitrillion-dollar products such as asset-backed securities. The US dollar has been turned into bad money as it has weakened and become vulnerable to other currencies. In all these ways, 'bad' finance has failed the American people and pointed US capitalism toward a global crisis.