Hegemony and Seigniorage: The Planned Spontaneity of the US Current Account Deficit

This article argues that the U.S. current account deficit emerged in the course of the structural transformation of the U.S. economy as the Fordist production regime underwent a profitability crisis, eroded, and was supplanted by the emerging dominance of the financial sector. This domestic transformation has been aided and abetted by the position of the U.S. dollar as key international currency which confers upon its owner the right of seigniorage whose spoils broadly defined to include not only seigniorage income and the benefits derived from the large-scale recycling of American debt, but also the ability to profit from exchange-rate manipulation of the dollar, have given further impetus to the erosion of the U.S. productive economy.