Think [the box] ing discussion

Hi:
I'm Dustin Hill, a new member of this group. By day I'm a political and business reporter for a U.S. news organization. On the side, I have written a new political novel, The Chinese Banker.

I began writing it as the financial crisis of 2008 really started to gain steam. It was during that time that I began to realize the manipulation of financial markets and currencies could very easily become the world's new weapons of mass destruction. The Chinese Banker plays off that theme.

Here's the back cover summary of the book:

$10 per gallon gasoline is the norm. Protesters flood the streets. Riots erupt at grocery stores. It's not a nightmare. It's the next generation of warfare.

Foreign forces are working to debauch the U.S. currency, throw the country’s economy into a tailspin, and knock America from its role as the world’s lone superpower. But their actions are subtle and so secret, not one man in a million could recognize them as the world’s newest form of warfare.

Roger Cusak, a columnist for The New York Examiner, is the one man who can. Lonely and middle-aged, Cusak really wants to take a job in his hometown as the editor of its small daily newspaper. There he can reunite with the one woman he's truly cared about. But Cusak and a secretive retired general are the only ones on the trail of a Chinese conspiracy that threatens to scar the American way of life and change the world's balance of power forever.

That's it. That's the last time I'll try to sell you the book. As my publisher can tell you, I'm not a very good marketer.

But even if you don't buy the book, I would be very interested in having a discussion about financial warfare (just such a war is being waged in Iran right now), currency manipulation, our reliance on Chinese bond buyers or any of that sort of stuff.

Plus, I'm always looking for friends here on Goodreads. If you have any interest, please send me a request.

Thanks,
DustinThe Chinese Banker

I know you are not quite saying the same thing, but the West’s armoury has long included what are called “economic sanctions” which it has deployed against those countries (usually small and poor ones) that have had the temerity to oppose western interests. These can be pretty devastating.

I found myself in Serbia in the aftermath of Milosevic and the civil war in Yugoslav. The economy had been ruined by sanctions, which had been going on for a good long time. On an entirely trivial level, it was extraordinarily difficult to buy and sell foreign currency, making it difficult for the ordinary tourist, but impossible too for legitimate traders. To replace the ordinary economy, a huge (and I mean huge) black market in counterfeit goods had arisen, flooding the place with criminals and making the country a virtual international pariah.

We did this kind of thing to Cuba, to Vietnam, and currently to Iran. Some countries have managed to cope – for example, Vietnam at last seems to be emerging, somewhat dazed, into the world - but others have not. In fact, it is done quite casually pour encourager les autres – i.e. to make sure that other countries know what will happen to them if they fail to genuflect to western interests. Since we ourselves consider such measures to be quite a normal and legitimate part of foreign policy, we can scarcely complain if other countries sometimes do the same to us.

We should maybe be careful in engaging in such procedures. The United Kingdom is still despised throughout the Third World because of its imperial record. When the USA ceases to dominate the world, no doubt those with long memories will continue to harbour grudges. For example, the Iranians quite plainly have not forgiven the USA and Britain for having replaced a more or less democratic government with the Shah.

Nor can we use “dictatorship” or “breaches of human rights” in our opponents’ countries to be much more than the rhetoric of conflict. Many of our allies are just as bad in these matters as the people we harass. And as the "war on terror" has proved, we ourselves are capable of showing scant regard for human rights.

You make good points, and indeed financial warfare is not new. The U.S. has practiced it for years. There currently is quite a financial war being waged against Iran. Look at how the Iranian currency has plummeted since several actions -- both overt and covert -- have been taken by the U.S. I'll leave it to others to comment on the justice or lack thereof regarding that war, but it is clear that financial tools are powerful weapons in today's world.

The plot of The Chinese Banker really reloves around what happens if a foreign enemy turns those weapons upon us. With our reliance on foreign debt, how susceptible are we to such an attack?

Thanks,
Dustin