That sounds like a gap that would have to break down eventually? I mean, if the Chinese are equally or less productive than their American counterparts, then allocating more to the transnats and increasing the Chinese labour's standard of living at the same rate or faster as the US labour's drops would have to break down...

So who'll be left holding the bag? The Chinese, on account of pollution and other externalities they don't count at the moment? The transnats, on account of pursuing monetary wealth that ceases to be meaningful when the states that underwrite it start inflating their currencies? Third countries who accepted suddenly worthless dollars for feeding their resources into the Chinese industrial plant? The Americans, by finding most of their tangible assets in the hands of transnats? Some combination?

Or have I missed something fundamental?

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.