by Jerry Harris, SolidarityEconomy.net .US hegemony rapidly disappearing US economic and political hegemony has degraded further in the rapidly globalizing world. At the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz has lost control through his own corrupt crony capitalism. But his problems stem as much from Iraq as his current missteps. Globalists who fill the bureaucracy at the World Bank never were comfortable with the US unilateralist coming to their home and Wolfowitz opened the door for their attacks. That the US can no longer control the internal politics at the World Bank is a good indicator of how far its political influence has fallen. Furthermore, for those who continue to argue that the US dollar insures US economic hegemony they need to look at the growing strength of the Euro, the Pound and of course the reserves sitting in Japan and China. As Jim Paulsen, chief investment officer at Wells Capital Management recently pointed out; “It’s no longer a dollar-denominated world and this is the start of a long-term trend.” (FT, 4-21-07) .Atlantic Council seeks globalist hegemony The Atlantic Council, a major voice for Euro/US economic interests are telling the West to give-up on multi-lateral agreements. The WTO has been stuck on the Doha trade round for years because third world countries have stuck together to demand major changes in subsidies handed out in the US and Europe to their farm producers. The Atlantic Council now argues the best road forward is to walk away and create a free-trade coalition of the willing. They still suggest that “free-traders” go by WTO rules and dispute settlement mechanism, but exclude non-participants who don’t want to play the way the big boys want. According to the Atlantic Council the US and Europe should restructure the entire Bretton Woods international economic architecture giving more representation to China, Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa and South Korea. Of course the Council failed to consult any of these countries about their new plans, but their transparent hope is to split the newly emerging economies from the rest of the third world. Thus the transnational capitalist class can expand while keeping poor countries in their traditional subservient role. .Stats on US/foreign asset values The total value of household assets in the US is $64 trillion and $32 trillion in non-financial business assets. Foreign investors have $2,800B in direct investments in the US, plus owning 43.9% of Treasury debt ($2,600B); 33.6% of corporate debt ($2,070B); 17% of the equity market ($2,600B); and 17.7% of agency debt ($1,130B). At 17% of the US equity market foreign ownership is below other industrial countries. Foreign investors own 42% of British equities, 30% of the Japanese equity market and average between 40 to 50% of equity markets in developing countries. Pension funds of the G7 now place at least 20-30% of their assets in foreign markets. The gross value of global capital flows is now equal to 16% of GDP compared with just 3-6% in the mid-1990s. Financial markets in the US are still the largest with an aggregate value of $47,600B compared with $26,500B for the euro zone; $17,300B for the yen zone; and $6,700B for the sterling zone. (FT, David Hale, 4/20/07)

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