Part of US economic policy entails making sure the USD is the trade/reserve currency for nations around the world (it is achieved partly through running a trade deficit, which conservatives pretend to worry so much about).

But, it turns out there are relatively few things you can do with USD when you’re outside the US. You can dump it into the stonks market (eg, SoftBank/UAE petrodollars). Or you can buy US bonds.

At least, this was my take away from reading some of Michael Hudson’s Superimperialism. Essentially, the system is working 100% as intended for the US bourgeoise. Maybe some members of the lumpenbourgeoise don’t understand, or maybe they need to pretend not to in order to achieve some goals