The Internationalism

Internationalism No. 84, February 2026 Page 11 The hunger for capital and raw materials which drives Donald Trump's challenges is indicative of the anxieties of the leading imperialisms, pressured by the steady maturation of Chinese imperialism. American power is in relative decline, and although still the best equipped, it does not have sufficient strength to continue playing the role of a hegemonic power, as it has done more or less since 1945 amid numerous crises. In 1973, Charles Kindleberger [1910-2003] , an important historian of the Great Depression, derived from the historical experience of the hegemonic systems of the United Kingdom and the United States five imperatives concerning the role of the leader or stabiliser country: 1) maintain a relatively open market for surplus goods; 2) provide long-term countercyclical or at least stable loans; 3) maintain a relatively stable exchange rate system; 4) ensure the coordination of macroeconomi...

Internationalism No. 33, November 2021 Page 6 Can a good recovery do damage? The answer is: yes, sometimes it can, if it triggers major imbalances. The capitalist mode of production is a source of imbalances, inequalities and asymmetries. This time, the imbalance is largely due to the states which have concocted an unexpectedly strong recovery, pulled along by private consumption, with their stimuli, subsidies, relief, tax cuts and zero-rate credits. According to The Economist , the stimuli handed out by governments during the pandemic amounted to about $10,400 billion in the world, equal to one eighth of the 2020 gross world product in current dollars. According to the April IMF Fiscal Monitor , governments, additional expenditure and lost revenue in the advanced economies were equal to 16% of the sum of their GDPs, in the face of losses which, in the final balance sheets, amounted to 4.5% of it. A good part of this went on governmen...