This op-ed was written by Carroll Robinson, Texas Southern University professor and former Houston City Council member.
Attacking Iran was a major military, domestic economic, and geopolitical miscalculation. It has exacerbated the global and domestic economic damage caused by the misguided tariffs strategy that originally started one of the greatest erosion of our nation’s global standing and credibility.
The attack on Iran has also shown all of us that our nation needs to rethink our military strategies and weapons procurement spending priorities. We have been spending on weapons systems for the last wars while new technology and innovation have been undermining the old in favor of new, less expensive, and smaller, more voluminous weapons options. More nuclear weapons and space-based laser platforms may not be the best futuristic weapons to invest in.
What is happening to America right now goes far beyond any disagreement with NATO over military spending and a united strategy to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression.
An illogical tariffs strategy combined with the attack on Iran are an historic disaster of epic proportions for our nation’s economic future and global leadership.
The greatest national security threat to America, over the next twenty years, is not going to be Iran, China, Russia, North Korea, or even Islamic extremists; it is going to be our nation’s ever-growing national debt, combined with the coming end of the petrodollar and our declining attractiveness as the preeminent global economic safe harbor. Tokenizing assets is not going to save the day.
As the rest of the world continues to move away from buying oil in dollars and those petrodollars are no longer available to buy Treasury bills (T-bills), the Federal Reserve won’t have enough economic firepower to keep printing more dollars by buying T-Bills itself without unleashing hyperinflation which will set the stage for stagflation worse than was seen across America in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
An illogical tariffs strategy combined with the attack on Iran are an historic disaster of epic proportions for our nation’s economic future and global leadership.
Carroll Robinson
That hyper-inflationary environment will intersect with the added challenges of higher domestic unemployment driven by Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and a growing pool of undereducated Americans who lack the mathematical, reading, and critical thinking skills to compete with robot architects, engineers, welders, construction workers, educators, and even healthcare workers, among many other professions.
Starting right now, Congress must develop a realistic plan not just to balance the federal budget annually but to also start significantly paying down the national debt and repaying the Social Security Trust Fund the Trillions of Dollars ($2.9 Trillion) that have been borrowed from that broken “lock box” for decades. The plan must also address reforming Pentagon spending and its weapons procurement processes.
It’s time to stop the games in Congress and get our fiscal house in order, including fixing our broken healthcare and immigration systems.
Congress must also develop a tax plan that won’t just raise taxes “on millionaires and billionaires” but one that will seriously reduce the national debt over the next 20 to 30 years.
In his book Post-Capitalist Society, Peter Drucker reminded us that “the world undergoes a radical transformation every few decades,” and I believe we are currently witnessing the next round of “radical transformation” unfolding before our very eyes.
A tipping point is upon us; the mystique of Pax Americana looks like it is finally coming to an end. More and more nations no longer see America as a stable and reliable economic and mutual defense partner, and the global trust and confidence being lost now may likely never be restored.