The Dollar and the F-35: Balance-Sheet Imperialism

Contemporary imperialism is a hierarchical regime of global accumulation enforcing exploitation and subordination without colonial territories. It rests on the structural pairing of internationalised productive capital (multinational-enterprise-led production chains) with globalised financial capital, articulated through the dollar as world money. The article shows that the decisive hinge of domination lies in the monetary hierarchy itself, which became unmistakable after the Great Crisis of 2007–09 as the financialisation of capitalism shifted into a new phase – Financialisation Mark II. Balance-sheet discipline, hierarchical liquidity allocation by the Federal Reserve, payment system control, sanctions, and collateral exactions now function alongside territorial coercion as mechanisms of surplus transfer and crisis adjustment, with monetary instruments predominating at critical moments. Absent a rival world money, productive ascent by peripheral challengers cannot dislodge US hegemony prolonging a coercive interregnum and raising the risk of world war.