We are not talking Chinese toys, or Mexican lettuce, we are talking about “Anglo-Saxon” financial products.

Increasingly the rest of the world is looking at the US and UK system of regulation, more accurately a system of no regulation, and seeing the downside, and becomind disenchanted with the US-UK model.

Henry Farrel cites articles by Wolfgang Münchau, and Steve Clemons about the change in attitude.

They both make the point that this is an ongoing, and IMHO accelerating, loss of power for the US, though Münchau is rather more stark, first because he has been an unabashed fan of what I call US style klepto-capitalism, but also because of his the points that me makes:

• The Euro would replace the dollar as the world’s largest reserve currency within the next 10 or 15 years. (I rather believe that it will be in 5-10 years, but I’m not an economist)
• If yours is a global reserve currency today, it is likely to be one tomorrow too. But this works only up to a point – a tipping point.
• But the Euro is a real alternative. [to the dollar as a reserve currency]
• This has been a crisis of Anglo-Saxon transaction-based capitalism.
• Losing the dollar as the world’s leading international currency not only leads to a loss of political power. It constitutes loss of power.

What happens when your bank starts demanding Euro denominated mortgages?