Pennings, A.J. (2026, Jan 28) Reviewing the New Deal’s Global Economy Framework and Its Current Challenges. apennings.com https://apennings.com/how-it-came-to-rule-the-world/reviewing-the-new-deals-global-economy-framework-and-its-current-challenges/

Introduction

Before we lose January, I wanted to remind people of the preferred meaning of Jan 6 (Of course we will remember the attack on the capitol). In his 1941 State of the Union address on January 6th, FDR articulated the “Four Freedoms.” The first three (Speech, Worship, Fear) were standard democratic ideals, but the fourth was revolutionary for the US. “The fourth is freedom from want… which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants.”

Later that year, after the attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler declared war on the US, these ideas became central Allied war aims, underpinning the Atlantic Charter (that ended the British Empire) and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was the pivotal point in world affairs. FDR implicitly stated that globalizing the New Deal had become a US national security interest.

The result was that the USD became the world’s major liquidity currency (initially hampered by gold), Fthe United Nations was created (always hampered by the Security Council vetoes), and the US Navy became the ocean’s police, allowing countries like China to forgo their own protective navies and reducing the cost of their goods for countries worldwide. This system is currently under review.

Was the New Deal Socialism?

Except for Social Security, the term “socialism” wasn’t used much in the New Deal. It’s a small word considering the task ahead for the US and global system. FDR’s plans even preceded Keynesian economics. However, he did “contain” finance, which he saw as an unruly system that led to the Great Crash of 1929 and its global unstability. Part of that “containment” was a tax system with rates north of 90 percent for top earners.

It was a 15-year endeavor rebuild the US economy and to shape a new global system, expanding the New Deal into a world system with the Atlantic Charter, Bretton Woods, the Marshall Plan, and the UN, all of which were resisted by the USSR, helping facilitate the Cold War.

The New Deal as a global “Allies” solution morphed in the 1970s when we reached the limits of the dollar-gold standard (Triffin Dilemma). and USD trade went electronic with Reuters Monitor.[1] US debt expanded to provide the new “gold” backing for the global currency with US Treasuries. Financial containment was ended, and taxes were reduced. Computer networks replaced the telex, and spreadsheet logic dominated the new political economy with the Bloomberg Box, Excel, and China’s Wind, digitizing and privatizing wealth.

Pan-capitalism broke out in the 1990s with the end of the USSR and the “Atari Democrat’s” World Trade Organization’s “new rules” framework that opened the world to IP networks and digital devices, making China and the other Asian Tigers very rich. Privatized telecoms (like NZ Telecom) opened up the world to free video/voice calls and global social media networks like FB.

But just as the gold in Fort Knox had its limits, the US public grew nervous about the federal debt. Luckily, the US consumer’s trade deficit kept China and the USD global liquidity system functioning, but not without dollar shortages cropping up, as in 2008, and the persistent strong dollar we see today.

BRICS is a “Second World” attempt to challenge the US-led world order by seducing the Global South with the Belt and Road Initiative and calls for “de-dollarization.” But the failed SMO in Eastern Europe, and the breakdown of the Chinese economy, have crumbled the BRICS initiative.

It did challenge Walter Wriston’s “information standard” and turned investment and reserve hold to gold. China’s CIP has made inroads into the world’s payment systems traditionally dominated by SWIFT.[2] Fintech innovations, including AI, represent a major challenge to USD dominance as we move into an era of blockchain and tokenization.

The Trump solution has been a chaotic mixture of “America First” tariffs, ending foreign aid, USD-backed stablecoins (2027), and military escalation. Resentment is building worldwide, but global money is still flowing back along the “Milk Road” into the USD.

And to Usher’s point, the US liberal/progressive movement does not have a major focus on the political economy, either domestically or globally. Even Obama used the “deficit” card as if the US economy ran on “household” economics that are limited by income and credit card debt. But debt expanded rapidly with COVID-19 reigniting concerns about the deficits.

That is why I think FDR’s vision for the Great Depression, the transformation of US industrialization, and decolonization and global economic enablement are useful data points to consider going forward for both the US and the global order.

Summary

e attack on the capitol). In his 1941 State of the Union address on January 6th, FDR articulated the “Four Freedoms.” The first three (Speech, Worship, Fear) were standard democratic ideals, but the fourth was revolutionary for the US. “The fourth is freedom from want… which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants.”

Later that year, after the attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler declared war on the US, these ideas became central Allied war aims, underpinning the Atlantic Charter (that ended the British Empire) and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was the pivotal point in world affairs. FDR implicitly stated that globalizing the New Deal had become a US national security interest.

The result was that the USD became the world’s major liquidity currency (initially hampered by gold), the United Nations was created (always hampered by the Security Council vetoes), and the US Navy became the ocean’s police, allowing countries like China to forgo their own protective navies and reducing the cost of their goods for countries worldwide. This system is currently under review.

Except for Social Security, the term “socialism” wasn’t used much in the New Deal. It’s a small word considering the task ahead for the US and global system. FDR’s plans even preceded Keynesian economics. However, he did “contain” finance, which he saw as an unruly system that led to the Great Crash of 1929 and its global unstability. Part of that “containment” was a tax system with rates north of 90 percent for top earners.

It was a 15-year endeavor rebuild the US economy and to shape a new global system, expanding the New Deal into a world system with the Atlantic Charter, Bretton Woods, the Marshall Plan, and the UN, all of which were resisted by the USSR, helping facilitate the Cold War.

The New Deal as a global “Allies” solution morphed in the 1970s when we reached the limits of the dollar-gold standard (Triffin Dilemma). and USD trade went electronic with Reuters Monitor. US debt expanded to provide the new “gold” backing for the global currency with US Treasuries. Financial containment was ended, and taxes were reduced. Computer networks replaced the telex, and spreadsheet logic dominated the new political economy with the Bloomberg Box, Excel, and China’s Wind, digitizing and privatizing wealth.

Pan-capitalism broke out in the 1990s with the end of the USSR and the “Atari Democrat’s” World Trade Organization’s “new rules” framework that opened the world to IP networks and digital devices, making China and the other Asian Tigers very rich. Privatized telecoms (like NZ Telecom) opened up the world to free video/voice calls, web advertising, global social media networks like FB, and AI web data collection.

But just as the gold in Fort Knox had its limits, the US public grew nervous about the federal debt. Luckily, the US consumer’s trade deficit kept China and the USD global liquidity system functioning, but not without dollar shortages cropping up, as in 2008, and the persistent strong dollar we see today.

BRICS is a “Second World” attempt to challenge the US-led world order by seducing the Global South with the Belt and Road Initiative and calls for “de-dollarization.” But the failed SMO in Eastern Europe, and the decline of the Chinese economy, have crumbled the BRICS’ momentum.

The Trump solution has been a chaotic mixture of “America First” tariffs, ending foreign aid, USD-backed stablecoins (2027), and military escalation. Resentment is building worldwide, but global money is still flowing back along the “Milk Road” into the USD.

The US liberal/progressive movement does not currently have a major focus on the political economy, either domestically or globally. Even Obama used the “deficit” card as if the US economy ran on “household” economics that are limited by income and credit card debt. But debt expanded rapidly with COVID-19 reigniting concerns about the deficits.

That is why I think FDR’s vision for the Great Depression, the transformation of US industrialization, and decolonization and global economic enablement are useful data points to consider going forward for both the US and the global order. “Socialism” is an insufficient conept to enact a successful democratic political economy.

Summary

This blog post argues for reclaiming January 6th as the anniversary of FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech (1941) rather than the date of the Capitol attack. The post traces the arc from FDR’s “Global New Deal” to the modern digital financial order.

It posits that FDR’s inclusion of “Freedom from Want” was a revolutionary pivot that transformed the US New Deal into a global security strategy. FDR realized that US national security depended on global economic stability. This philosophy underpinned the Atlantic Charter (decolonization), the UN (political forum), and the Bretton Woods system.

The US Navy became the “global police,” lowering trade costs for the world, while the US dollar provided liquidity. Crucially, FDR “contained” finance with high taxes and regulations to prevent the instability of the 1929 crash.

The shift from Gold to Spreadsheets (1970s–1990s) describes the collapse of the FDR order due to the Triffin Dilemma (the limits of the gold standard). In the 1970s, the US shifted from backing the dollar with gold to backing it with US Debt (Treasuries). Financial containment ended. The “telex” was replaced by computer networks (Reuters, Bloomberg, Excel). This digitized and privatized wealth, leading to “Spreadsheet Capitalism.”

In the 1990s, “Atari Democrats” and the WTO opened the world to IP networks, enriching the Asian Tigers and China. The post argues we are now reaching the limits of this debt-based system. The BRICS attempt to “de-dollarize” and curry favor in the South via the Belt and Road Initiative. But BRICS challenges are crumbling due to the failure of Russia’s military operation (SMO) and China’s economic breakdown. Global capital is still flowing back to the USD via the “Milk Road.”

The “Trump Solution” is a chaotic mix of tariffs, stablecoins, and military escalation. Meanwhile, modern liberals fail to understand political economy, joining the Republicans in treating the US budget like “household economics” rather than a tool for industrial transformation.

Notes

[1] A classic source on Bretton Woods and the Triffin Dilemma was Moffit, M. (1983) The World’s Money. NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
[2] Wriston’s interpretation of the Information Standard The Twilight of Sovereignty: How the Information Revolution Is Transforming Our World was organized around a rhetoric of assurance, not a critical analysis. He argued the power of multinational corporations, nation-state dictatorships, and any aggregation of power antithetical to democratic prospects will fall to the sovereign power of the information standard.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Anthony J. Pennings, PhD is a professor at the Department of Technology and Society, State University of New York, Korea and a Research Professor for Stony Brook University. He teaches AI and broadband policy. From 2002-2012 he taught digital economics and information systems management at New York University. He also taught in the Digital Media MBA at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, where he lives when not in Korea.

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Category: democratic political economies, digital geography, enabling frameworks, enterprise systems, financial news, financial technology, geopolitical risk, global communications, global e-commerce, how IT came to rule the world, spreadsheet logic, sustainable development
Tags: FDR > Four Freedoms > New Deal

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