Edward Luce argues convincingly that the already very high sovereign debt burden of the US will only get worse due to the current partisan politics (Opinion, May 31). He reminds us why sterling lost its reserve currency status due to its war-related debt. It is true that the war debt caused sterling’s demise. But the other significant reason for it was the ascending power of the rapidly industrialising US economy and the dollar’s accelerating claim on global trade around the early 20th century. We are witnessing a similar scenario unfold almost 100 years later: China’s aggressive claim on global trade and the resultant threat to the dollar’s supremacy.
愛德華•盧斯(Edward Luce)的文章《川普危及美元霸主地位》令人信服地提出，美國當前的黨派政治意味著，其業已龐大的主權債務負擔只會變得更糟。他提醒我們，當年英鎊正是因爲戰爭相關債務失去了儲備貨幣地位。沒錯，戰爭債務導致了英鎊的沒落。但英鎊沒落的另一個重大原因是20世紀初美國的實力不斷上升，得益於美國經濟迅速工業化和美元加速提升其在全球貿易所佔分量。差不多100年後，我們正在目睹類似的一幕：中國加速提升人民幣在全球貿易中所佔分量，由此給美元霸主地位帶來威脅。