Your currency is worthless. I don't know why most of you waste your time trying to accumulate money. Think about it. Reset. Everyone starts at $X. Whatever $X is is likely going to be LESS than what you have today so you might as well go blow it on iPods, iPhones, computers, cars, and things like that. We'll be all eating in the same soup kitchen.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/05/hey_theyre_gonn.html Happy hoarding. obama-lama
There are no countries "with economies 5 times larger than china"... China is already the 2nd largest. http://useconomy.about.com/b/2008/02/12/us-no-longer-worlds-largest-economy.htm
I think the only thing that is going to go hyper is productivity. We are only 20 years away from primtive artifical intelligence. When true AI kicks in you will see incredible advances in science. Cures for diseases, superconducting materials, nanotechnology, gravitronic devices. It goes on and on. Science will save us if we don't blow ourselves up first. John
? we are going to making things that have never existed before and it will be made here in the US. The US is the worlds largest mfg'er by far and will remain so. John
Agree with what you said above re: science driving product development. However, do you really think the the U.S. is going to be the leader in mass producing these tech-intensive products? Are there not one or two other countries which pop to mind as candidates? Think low wages and tech smarts.
It's called innovation...it does not apply solely to the US. Technology will always be the forefront to improved quality of life. Now, getting back to the real issue of this thread....the issue is not so much as to whether other countries will continue to invest in the USD through bonds, but how much in comparison to the past. Essentially, the gloves are off and the US does not look too attractive ,however the reality is that net exporters need to continue to purchase US bonds to maintain US currency "balance" within their reserves. Similarly, as do other nations that are net importers need to maintain sufficient US reserves to create equilibrium to stabilize their own currency. A perfect example of "straying" is Hungary. I have been drinking so if something doesn't make sense here...I apologise..will orrect it another day.
As far as production of these things go, human capital will become increasingly less important, most likely. Manufacturing will become more localized, as labor costs are reduced due to automation/robotics. Humans will continue to displaced toward the service sector, IMO.
I believe we will remain the world's leader in manufacturing. I also believe that as more and more labor is taken out of manufacturing there will be less incentive to produce over seas. Japan, Germany will also produce these high value added products just as they produce great products now. I didn't mean to imply that the US had a monopoly on high value products. John