Haruna:

I thought the guy was a comedian at first. You have to give it to him though. He's darn good at presenting his stuff. And I must say he made sense on some of things he was talking about but only went a little overboard with some of conspiracy theories. I agree with him that America will do anything to safeguard the position of the Dollar in the world market - and who would blame them for it. America gets the jitters when the Yuan starts appreciating and this is for good reason. The American dollar's position as the global currency is a matter of national security. I wouldn't go as far as saying America will topple governments or start wars to safeguard the dollar but we have seen extraordinary measures being taken to thwart all threats to the dollar's position. 

I've had interesting debates with some Pakistani's - one of them actually reminds me of you in his idiocy sometimes. Only that yours is intentional most of the time. Anyways, these Paks, for some reason think they are smarter than anyone and that Americans are generally dumb. They go on touting how they - Pakistan - are "fooling" America into parting with billions of dollars for the benefit of Pakistan without giving zilch in return. I always tell them at the end of the day, it will be clear who's fooling who. I reminded them that all that money is heading right back into the American economy as stolen money and reserves in American banks. These are being held and used in America via treasury bills etc. and most of the expertise going into building the infrastructure in Pakistan is provided by expatriate Americans. 

Anyhow, what Venkatesh is saying is a common line of argument among Asian Economists and has loads of nationalistic bias and conspiracy theory in it. Suffice to say, some of his arguments are very true and that's because of America's smartness in making sure the dollar held the early and strongest footing in world trade. 

-Laye

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