Post #4316734

So, without much fanfare, the US appears to have resumed a practice that went out of favor among most states more than a century ago, and globally since the defeat of Nazi Germany: naked aggression to seize resources for the benefit of the aggressor and direct personal enrichment of the aggressor’s ruler. The US has spent the decades since 1945 enjoying immense benefits from a global system it established that transfers wealth and resources, but usually through indirect, institutional means. From Bretton Woods to the WTO and IMF to the dollar’s global reserve currency status to intellectual property regimes, US elites have redirected global wealth to themselves, but they have done so through formal institutions, processes, and international agreements.