Ann Pettifor

We've got to do that as well.

And we've got to manage the currencies that we use in trading.

And they win most of the arguments on capital mobility.

The Americans and the rest of the world agree we've got to manage capital cross-border flows.

And they also agree that we must manage trade.

Where they don't agree is that the dollar should be the world's reserve currency.

That's just what the Americans want.

Anyway, so between 1945 and 1971 is a period known to all economists on the left and the right as the golden age of economics, the golden age.

Employment was high.

Even the poor countries in Africa were expanding their economic activity and doing well.

What happened then was America decides to go to war in Vietnam.

And they get into debt.

They get into debt.

And getting into debt in your own country, where you've got a bank that issues the currency and manages the credit, amount of credit in the economy, is one thing.

But getting into debt with foreigners is another.

You've got to repay your debts in a currency called the dollar.

But the Americans are getting out of balance, right?

And any low-income country will tell you they know what this means because this is what happens when the IMF zooms into a country and tells them to structurally adjust their economy.

The Americans would refuse to structurally adjust their economy.

They should have, if you like, stopped buying from abroad and invested more at home.