So if the USA declares "ownership be damned", it would be a net win for the USA.
Or in simpler terms: The USA has been giving out IOUs for real goods for decades. It is now tempting to default on those IOUs. They did it before. Before 1971, a dollar certified a claim to gold. Then that claim was simply waived.
And the US owes trillions.
The dangerous situation we are in is that the US is berating and betraying its closest historical allies, eroding its credibility and soft power, and weakening its leverage at a time when threats to the Western order that has existing since the end of WW2 are growing rapidly.
grey-area•21m ago