U.S. Consumer Power: From Strategic Asset to Potential Vulnerability
In the post-World War II era, the international economic system was structured around a clearly defined pivot: the absorptive capacity of the U.S. market. Privileged access to that market enabled defeated economies such as Italy, Germany, and Japan to launch rapid industrial reconstruction, benefiting from American domestic demand as a driver for their exports. This model transformed U.S. consumption into a tool of geoeconomic power, capable of sustaining the growth of allied economies while simultaneously reinforcing the centrality of the United States within the global trade network. The same paradigm was repeated in the 1990s and 2000s with China, whose economic “miracle” was largely fueled by its ability to place a significant share of its manufacturing output in the United States. For decades, the American market functioned as a central attractor of the system, binding trade flows, political alliances, and financial stability into a relationship of mutual interdependence.