Listening in now. Extremely refreshing to have an intellectual conversation without quite so large a threat of global crisis https://twitter.com/jainfamilyinst/status/1325840573140361218

Really appreciating Marc Schwartz’s comparison of the contemporary dollar system to British system of informal empire—a state backed currency propped up by deficits at home that prop up demand abroad

Now @BuddyYakov challenging the framework of empire: empire is about managing difference. Nation states are a homogenizing project. He sees the global system revolving around US as dealer of dollars is a homogenizing project too.

I do wonder if @BuddyYakov is conflating cultural/social management of difference and production of homogeneity with economic systems. That is, how an empire might manage difference via culture, law, politics, but also have an economic system premised on creating homogeneity.

For instance, curious about his thoughts on British protection of sterling zone. Seems to me that is a homogenizing economic system designed to sustain and uphold the management of empire through cultural difference

. @adam_tooze summing up debate: Schwartz: dollar is a coherent facet of a system of American power (though not always a straightforward lever) vs @BuddyYakov: dollar distinct from & often destabilizing from American power. So global as to elude imperial management

. @DanielaGabor pushing back on narrative centering US & dollar entirely. Drawing on @BJMbraun's argument for the "infrastructural power of finance": the architecture of private financial system shapes rules of the games esp via development in global south & climate policy

. @DanielaGabor how is it that a Trump admin has entirely eschewed climate policy at global and national level, yet private finance has begun setting the rules of the game for "greening" economy. What does this say about power of private finance vs state/imperial US hegemony?

Waltraud Schelkle makes a good point: difference between states that ran trade deficits but were global creditors (like imperial Britain) vs a hegemon that is a global debtor, like the United States

Another great point from Schwartz, in agreement with @BuddyYakov: this is not a 99% vs 1% problem. The top 10-15% are winners in a global system of dollar hegemony. Private finance is managing these people's retirement accounts & exerting power.

Elham Saeidinezhad: private dealers of FX swaps and dollars are making markets more reliant on non-bank actors. Highlights the status of EM currencies in getting dollars through private actors and swaps. Deep hybridity b/w state & private actors

. @adam_tooze in 2008 we knew how the structure worked, we could see relationship between private banks & states. Since then, retreat of private banks have created a new financial system where we are still searching for the key lynch-points (exchanges,fund managers,dealers)

. @adam_tooze closes the session: "Paying is easy. Doing is hard." Amen.