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by socialdemocrat 1440 days ago
Not producing enough food is pretty normal. In my native Norway we have not been self sufficient in hundreds of years. Only 2.5% of the land is arable. Any time there was a serious war and shipping lanes got blocked like in Napoleonic wars we got into deep trouble. Plenty of people died. Same deal in the Netherlands. They were not self sufficient in their Golden age. The Soviet Union was not self-sufficient. It was a big reason why it collapsed. It got import problems just like Sri-Lanka causing political turmoil and eventual collapse.

Funny what being unable to import can do to a country. The US cannot have this problem since it controls the world reserve-currency. It can in principle print itself out of any problem.
2 comments
chii 1440 days ago
> The US cannot have this problem since it controls the world reserve-currency

you got that the wrong way around. The US has the world reserve _because_ it cannot have this problem (of not having enough domestic production of necessities).

The world isn't entirely controlled by the US - even though they do dictate a large portion of financial policy all over the world, the countries of the world decided to use the US currency as an intermediary because of the stability and assurances (that has recently been shocked by financial sanctions of magnitudes never seen before).

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runeks 1438 days ago
> […] the countries of the world decided to use the US currency as an intermediary because of the stability and assurances (that has recently been shocked by financial sanctions of magnitudes never seen before).

After WWII, the world agreed to use the US Dollar as reserve currency because the US promised to exchange every 35 USD for one troy ounce of gold, as per the Bretton Woods agreement.

And when the US defaulted on this obligation in 1971 the world continued using the USD since there was no other politically viable alternative.

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rmatt2000 1440 days ago
> It can in principle print itself out of any problem.

Except inflation, as we are learning.

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ncmncm 1440 days ago
Strangely, you can print money during a recession without causing inflation.

But you have to stop when the recession is over. That has proven hard for people to remember to do.

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