It is simply a new world order that points

There was a time where the Fort Knox gold guaranteed the United States dollar. This time is no longer since Richard Nixon broke the link between the yellow metal to the greenback, August 15, 1971. There was a time when New York was the financial capital of the planet, where the dollar was the universal currency, where the signing of the US State was the safest in the world. This time there ended in turn.

The terrible financial crisis that our live for more than a year was made in Wall Street. Banks the most prestigious of Manhattan, the most arrogant, all called for help one way or another these past six months. Lehman went bankrupt, Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch have been redeemed in catastrophe, bailed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been out in extremis. In this turmoil, dollar inspires more confidence. Of course, the currency of the United States much climbed against the euro in recent days, since the storm of the crisis across the Atlantic. But it was only a respite. The American currency rectifier against the Japanese yen. And its resistance against other Asian currencies comes first from the political will of China to maintain the value of the greenback. Doubt, finally, gaining confidence in the US State. On financial markets, players are now betting on default of Washington. In the chaos of the financial crisis, this disruption here is the most radical, innovative, which deals with the more serious consequences to term. It is simply a new world order that points.

At the same time where a class political and intellectual moutonnière famous back in thanks of the State, its financial strength is shoved by storms of unprecedented money. The capitals lack capital. This week, a very small State such as Iceland (350.000 inhabitants) had to borrow billions of euros to the Russia to save its banks. Last week, a larger country, Belgium (11 million) has cashed a masterful camouflet. He had to nationalize Fortis... and financiers continued to watch the top Bank. In other words, they did not believe the security of the Kingdom. So their eyes change, it took the Bank is taken over by BNP Paribas, a bank from a larger France and therefore with the deepest pockets. Another sign of defiance of a State which is part of the larger countries this time: Italy (60 million) must now pay a higher rate of interest of 1 of the Germany to raise money, while the gap was three times less six months ago. Here again, the financial actors are skeptical of the ability of a nation to meet its commitments.

The United States are not, or not yet. If their debt should exceed 70 percent next year, it goes beyond 100 in Italy and 180 on the Japan. Investors from around the world continue to drive for US Treasury bonds. Rating agencies regularly remind us that this debt is always the AAA rating, assigned to the safest borrowers. But the question is. On the market of CDS (credit default swap"), insurance against the non-repayment of a loan, the probability of failure of the United States is certainly considered small... but it has more than doubled in six months, a mistrust that affects no other major countries.

And, above all, foreign investors who buy American public paper by hundreds of billions of dollars become more nervous. Washington knows well. A decision clearly shows: rescue the month last of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Full collapse of the housing market, it makes sense to save these two giants of real estate refinancing. But if the shareholder have been duly ratiboisés in operation, the lenders, they have been completely preserved. A courtesy which did not have right for example AIG's creditors. Why Simply because the Asian central banks had bought whole cars of bonds issued by Freddie and Fannie, who promised in its slogan "the American dream." No way to take the risk of mad as good customers!

Despite this great effort, the worm is now in the fruit. Doubt hangs over US Treasury bonds. But these obligations are essential in global finance: they constitute the foundations. Everything is built, by a learned set of deviations to the rate of interest ("spreads", say financiers). The role of the dollar in the global economy depends on it. The tornado is blink an order put in place for a century. It undermines the financial superpower of the United States.

The country had developed several decades to establish its financial pre-eminence. The US economy had become the first of the world in the early 20th century. Its finance is built over the crisis, with including the crash of 1907 which resulted in the creation of the Federal Reserve. It is asserted in the 1920s, when the dollar is imposed against the pound sterling (the massive creation of greenbacks to support the British currency is one of the causes of the bubble of 1929). It was consecrated by the accords of Bretton Woods in 1944. This narrative is coming to an end, in the crash of financial houses that collapsed one after the other. For the first time, the Government has same should recapitalize the Federal Reserve, weakened by the toxic assets it buys bankers asphyxiated to give them a little bit of oxygen!

In the fog current, difficult to see what will replace America as the heart of global finance. It is too early for China in the competition for the first in the world, it is about where were the United States in 1900. Europe stretches its disunity. The very existence of the euro, which has mounted in world reserves of foreign exchange to the detriment of the dollar in recent years, could be challenged by the temptation of beggar that itch European leaders. No other power is credible to become the new heart. Unless emerge several world economies organized around financial cities like New York, London or Frankfurt, Dubai, Shanghai, São Paulo, Johannesburg... The financial crisis is radically new it is for this reason that we so hard to understand. The post-crisis world is also radically new.