WASHINGTON, April 12 (Xinhua) -- America's mounting debt bill is the country's greatest national security crisis-in-waiting, U.S. magazine The National Interest has reported.
Noting that the country registered a 1.6 trillion-U.S. dollar deficit this year and a 35-trillion-dollar overall debt, the report said Thursday that Washington is "carrying the debt load that the United States has been carrying -- and constantly piling more, all while using the dollar's dominant position as a cudgel against other great powers."
Given America's position at the center of global trade throughout the 20th century, Washington got used to a domestic policy of spending "as profligately as" it wants as well as a foreign policy of crafting "devastating financial weapons, such as sanctions, to harm countries with which it has problems," it said.
Washington has been "abusing America's economic dominance," which is a "folly," it noted.
"Both the Trump and Biden Administrations engaged in the most irresponsible level of deficit spending in the history of America, first to combat the economic downturn caused by the (COVID-19) lockdowns, then to stimulate the ailing economy," which resulted in skyrocketing inflation and surging interest rates at home, the report said.
A gloomy U.S. economic outlook, together with a fear of Washington's wanton use of "the weaponized dollar" against developing countries, has prompted the Global South to search for a hedge against possible risks, it added. ■