Best of luck finding an investment as safe as US Treasuries (dominated in good ole greenbacks).

With Europe in economic malaise and China's economy hitting the brakes, it'll be a long time before US economic supremacy is challenged.

Investments are only safe if there's strong consensus that they're worth what people say they're worth.

I don't know all the details, but didn't a number of investors from all around the world lose money when the US switched away from the gold standard?

As for a safer investment, how about land ownership?

Ah yes. Land. Until it's confiscated. Or taxed (window tax? Second home tax? Landlord tax?). Do you own the land? Or do you own a piece of paper from the government that says you own the land? A piece of paper whose credibility depends on the credibilty of the issuing powers, just like fiat currency.

"A piece of paper whose credibility depends on the credibilty of the issuing powers, just like fiat currency."

Same as US treasuries also.

Would you really want to bet your investment on a piece of land when you could instead bet on the US continuing to exist as a sovereign state? The only place you'd possibly bet on land would be London, maybe. Otherwise, I'd rather have my money in Treasuries.

A land grab by a stable government is not very likely.

Furthermore, unlike land that can give you valuable goods even if you can't sell it, US treasuries are worthless if you can't sell them.

I heard the following story recently, though I haven't checked if it's true... Back when the dollar was a gold backed currency, multiple foreign governments traded some of their gold in for US treasuries. It became clear to these governments that the US was issuing more treasuries than they had gold deposits for, so these countries tried to get their gold back. IIRC France was one of these countries. The US government stalled the sale of the treasuries then switched away from the gold standard.

If the above was true, France and the other foreign governments lost money in this deal. Who's to say what other adjustments could come in the future. So you see, US treasuries can potentially be a bad investment regardless of whether the US continues to exist as sovereign state.

Not likely, the US is on the rise again after suffering a decade plus of weakness.

The strong dollar is powering the US economy ahead while most of the world is struggling to stay above water. Americans gained roughly 20-25% in purchasing power against the rest of the world in just the last 18 months. US households have paid down a vast amount of debt in five years, significantly improving their debt to income ratio (while much of the world has done the opposite). Full-time job openings are at 15 year highs. The US share of all global wealth remains above 45%. The US median income remains among the highest of any nation, with no indication of erosion inbound. US economic competitiveness is among the highest, and total US manufacturing output is the highest it has ever been. Economically the US has been persistently getting better the last three to four years. The US is also about to enter a significant wage increase cycle that will see the standard of living move upward for the first time since the late 1990s.

By comparison, China is a disaster; Japan is stuck in the same hole it has been in for 25 years with 'deflation' (debt) continuing to eat away at their economy; Europe hasn't seen net GDP expansion since roughly 2007, with the Eurozone having twice the unemployment rate of the US, and with the Eurozone QE program failing to boost growth meaningfully.

Further, US neighbors Canada and Mexico both have done tremendously well over the last decade and will continue to, which will act as a multiplier for the US economy.

>...on the rise again

The only thing on the rise in the US seem to be:

- all sorts of debts (check out the student loan debt, in particular, it has exceeded the credit-card debt and has currently a 17% deadbeat rate)

- the number of people not in labor force (95 million, the highest in 30 years).

The fact that the US is (for now) in better shape than Greece or Brazil does not mean it is doing great. And the direction things are going in is down, not up.

Finance is hard. But not that hard.

>Not likely, the US is on the rise again after suffering a decade plus of weakness.

The fact that your comment was instantly donwvoted indicates just how out of touch most people are with the reality of global economics.

Capital is flooding to the US because of its relative strength.

The dollar is denominated in aircraft carriers.

If you want a long period of constant wars between nations, yes, please go ahead and ask for taking away the primacy of the US.

In simplest terms, gang wars break out when there's no strong leader on top. When a strong leader is killed/arrested, others will try to muscle their way to the top. Same story will take place if US loses the primacy.

Quite right. But it's not just the USA.

A small group of industrialized countries are responsible for holding together what we call Western Civilization. Lose that and the world economy collapses by at least 90%.

When the world economy collapses, the world population will also collapse. The world goes back to tribalism. That's OK for places like Afghanistan, that haven't really advanced past tribalism. But not so good for first world countries. E.g. about 99% of the jobs of HN readers will no longer exist.