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Comment by deadbabe | Hacker News Reader

Europe has benefited a lot from not having to pour tons of money into defense spending. Europeans will be hurting if their countries suddenly have to shift finances for this.

I think it’s much easier to just hunker down and appease the United States for four years and hope the next administrations are more merciful.

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Maybe... but probably not. Having to divert investments from one part of the economy to another is not that much a big problem: Russia has been doing the same and they have an economy of war that works more or less (some say they are on the brink of collapse and yet, they are still there). So, Europe can totally rely way less on the US, they just have to change their priorities, and they'll adapt just as Russia has adapted. Thinking they cannot is really presumptuous, or even comptemptuous (and a lot of people have made the same mistake with Russia by the way). And yet, at the moment, the US think that way, not believing in soft power any more, but only in pure pressure or even blackmail. If history teaches one thing, it is that you always create your own ennemies (Versailles treaty comes to mind).

That is not what is happening. Listen to Ursula. She’s telling you what is happening. Eu countries are being “allowed” to go into debt without triggering eu debt procedures. It won’t be reinvestment. It will be dilution of currency though debt. Something all too familiar to Americans.

Correct. Interestingly enough, it will massively increase the supply of euro bonds, and probably pull in a bunch of cash that goes to US treasuries now.

If there's enough pan European bonds (which there won't be) then the reserve currency status of the dollar could be threatened.

"Europe has benefited a lot from not having to pour tons of money into defense spending."

I'd say spending so much on American weapons has hurt it's own domestic capabilities if anything.

Bold of you to assume there will be a next administration in the United States in four years.

"hope"

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