INTEGRATION PROJECT
The Future of the E.U.
TAKING CREDIT
Why'd the TTP Claim a Failed Attack?
CLOSE-MINDED
The Conservative Foreign Policy Consensus
One of the purposes of this blog is to profess my deep, profound admiration for Salma Hayek take somewhat arcane concepts from the world of social science and make them more accessible to the general interest reader. For example, there's been a lot of talk in recent years about the end of the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency. I keep saying it's not going to happen. To undertstand why, let me put it this way: the U.S. dollar is the Facebook of hard currencies.
Social networking technologies, like reserve currencies, have a peculiar quality -- they are more useful when more people use them. A social networking site is only worth something if everyone's friends and contacts are on the site. It doesn't matter if there's another site that's superior, unless everyone is willing to simultaneously switch over.
This gives the owner of the dominant social networking site an exorbitant privilege. It can change the rules of the game in its favor with minimal risk of mass defections. Indeed, it looks like Facebook is doing exactly that in an effort to increase its profit sources.
Not surprisingly, this has alienated some Facebook users. As Charli Carpenter points out, however, alienation does not necessarily lead to defection:
A lot of us can't just decide to "leave" without having somewhere to go. That's because Facebook has become not just an extension of our offline networks, but to some extent, a space in which our virtual identities live "“ our most important semi-imagined community. The decision to leave such sites is usually agonizing and isolating, because we are deeply committed to what Facebook has to offer, even as many of us abhor on principle what Facebook is becoming....
Plenty of us would choose such an exile from the dictatorship of Facebook were there a welcoming neighbor nearby to which we could escape with our friends and families. The latter is crucial: since the "space" of social networking sites is constituted both by the platform and by one's social network, we need a way to convince people in our Facebook networks to join us in exodus. That requires a social networking utility as cool and functional as Facebook, with none of its privacy-violating nonsense. Not just any country, but a country where we and our friends would actually want to go.
There's an additional requirement -- everyone would need to agree that the new country is clearly cooler than Facebookland. These are pretty imposing barriers to exit.
Now, lest one despair too much, Facebook, like the U.S. Treasury Department or the Federal Reserve, does not have unlimited power -- there is a limit pricing effect. Too much abuse of the privilege will lead to increased search for alternatives, and give competitors an enhanced incentive to encroach on Facebook's turf. Indeed, in this way, Facebook's status is more fragile than the dollar -- because while there are viable alternatives to Facebook, the only plausible rival to the dollar right now is doing a lovely job of imploding right now.
There is one warning, however -- Facebook's hegemony will seem impregnable right up to the moment it collapses. Because the attraciveness of these sites depends on the number of other users, there's always the possibility that an inflection point is reached in which everyone migrates from Facebook to Orkut or something else. And when that does happen, the fall of Facebook will be fast and hard.
And yes, this applies to the dollar as well.
Somalia's Saviors Are Just Making Things Worse
Why the Times Square Bombing Proves Me Right
Will Family Stress Tear Apart the U.S. Military?
Athens Riots Like It's 1968
HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE
YANKEE DOODLE
2:20 PM ET
May 6, 2010
That's fine... until the alternative wins...
I appreciate your ability to link two otherwise unrelated topics through this analogy. However, I just hope that the comparison is not TOO strong. Just ask the creators/owners of MySpace how quickly being the "dominant" social networking site can slip through your hands. I hope that another currency or basket of currencies doesn't "Facebook" our "MySpace" anytime soon.
ANONYMOUS10
2:27 PM ET
May 6, 2010
Bring back the Gold Standard!
Only Gold Can Replace the Greenback As the World's Reserve Currency by: Sami Karam January 25, 2008 "What are central bankers to do with their reserves? Selling current dollar holdings in a massive fashion is like shooting yourself in the foot. The Euro and Yen reside in economies that are too dependent on US growth to be considered safe havens. The only clear option therefore is to place a significant portion of new reserves in gold. Since its lows of 2001, the Euro has nearly doubled vs. the dollar, but gold has more than tripled. And there will likely be more upside. The price of gold in real terms remains significantly below its last high recorded in the early 1980s, and would need to double to match that level again. While the amount of gold available in the world has risen since 1980, its rate of growth has been dwarfed by an enormous creation of capital in the past 25 years, capital which may now look for a safe haven away from the world's wobbly currencies."
Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Read More
MOSTREAD
MOSTCOMMENTED
MOSTREAD
MOSTCOMMENTED
MOSTREAD
MOSTCOMMENTED
MOSTREAD
MOSTCOMMENTED
Maostalgia
An Ode to Farming
COVER STORY
The False Religion of Mideast Peace
FEATURE
The Billionaire Dissident
PHOTO ESSAY
Maostalgia
See Entire Issue
Read Full Article »