Who is winning what?

We are living challenging times. The fainthearted will not cope with the stress of days, and understandably so. This crisis, like any before it, will eventually subdue. Some nations will rise, some might fall. It is the nature of the history to repeat itself in certain important dimensions. It has happened before, it can happen now as well. The important thing is to get the facts right. I personally think that this crisis is the making of the new global challenges, more than the mistakes of the past. But any crisis is an opportunity, as a famous quotation goes.
The US downgrading is actually more worrisome for its debt holders, with China topping the list: China’s reckless policy of an undervalued Yuan is now shooting back. The US is free-riding on the Chinese appetence for Treasury bonds and printing more money is a win-win situation, from their perspective. It weakens the dollar, thus more competitive exports; it might lead to inflation, a well known steroid for job creation, and makes the debt-repaying much easier.
Aside from the debt issue, it was this crisis that revealed how little a village the world has become. If we are to move forward, governance should change, new global institutions should emerge and new development projects should be fostered together by the most able and willing nations. Otherwise, it will all turn into an egotistic nationalistic race for primary resources and raw materials, something that does not spur productivity, nor technological progress, and it can only bring high-level tensions and possibly, warfare.