Graveyard of Empires

 

Biden and others have called Afghanistan the Graveyard of Empires.  There are a number of definitions of "empire" but here we will use:

   Empire:  A government that collects taxes from other countries.

By this definition I believe the USA is an empire, though using a tax very few recognize.   As Keynes put it:

By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.

After world war 2 the US dollar became the world reserve currency.   Since then Central Banks, businesses, and people all over the world have been using the US dollar and holding US bonds.   As the US prints more dollars, they are really collecting a hidden tax on dollar holders all over the world.   This is a most diabolical tax, as it is so secret and unobserved.   This "inflation tax" has gone on for more than 70 years.

Recently the pace of money printing has increased to trillions per year.   This may be getting to the "evil empire" stage, where there is a tax revolt. 

The fraction of US debt held by foreigners has been dropping recently:

Source:  Fred

If enough people realize that holding dollars makes them subject to this tax, and so decide to no longer use the dollar, we could easily get hyperinflation.

The rest of the world could leave the dollar for something else.  For example, other central banks could use gold as reserves to back their own currencies.  Gold is what was used before the dollar and could work again.  A number of central banks do seem to be buying gold faster recently.   For international settlement, Bitcoin could work.    No doubt such a major change will be chaotic for awhile.  After the change most of the world could be better off, as they would no longer pay the US dollar inflation tax.   However, the USA will be much worse off, as they will no longer collect this huge inflation tax from the rest of the world.

Like other empires that failed after failing in Afghanistan, probably the American Empire is coming to an end.