Chimerica is a
neologism and
portmanteau coined by
Niall Ferguson and Moritz Schularick describing the
symbiotic relationship between
China and the
United States, with incidental reference to the legendary
chimera. Though the term is largely in reference to
economics, there is also a
political element.
Historian Niall Ferguson and economist Moritz Schularick first coined "chimerica" in late 2006, arguing that
saving by the Chinese and
overspending by Americans led to an incredible period of
wealth creation that contributed to the
financial crisis of 2007–08. For years,
China accumulated large currency reserves and
channeled them into US government securities, which
kept nominal and real long-term interest rates artificially low in the United States.
Ferguson describes Chimerica as one economy which "accounts for around 13 percent of the world's
land surface, a quarter of its
population, about a third of its
gross domestic product, and somewhere over half of the global
economic growth of the past six years." He suggests
Chimerica could end if
China were to
decouple from the United States bringing with it a
shift in global power and
allowing China "to explore other spheres of global influence, from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, of which Russia is also a member, to its own informal nascent empire in commodity-rich Africa." [Let's face it, neither the CCP nor the Kremlin display signs of being trustworthy in relation to the "West".]
The
accumulation of American debt, which has been estimated at
over $800 billion, suggests the two nations are
intrinsically linked; the
economic symbiosis prevalent between the two suggests that separation would harm both countries and be
disastrous for the global economy. Another way to measure this integration is the trade deficit. The
US trade deficit with China was $295 billion in 2011, meaning the
US imported that much
more goods and services from China than it exported to China. The
Economic Policy Institute estimated that from
2001 to 2011,
2.7 million US jobs were lost to China.
The idea of Chimerica features prominently in Ferguson's 2008 book and adapted television documentary
The Ascent of Money, which reviews the history of money, credit, and banking.
The concept of Chimerica supplements and/or supplants
Nichibei, or the
similarly constructed Japan-U.S. economic model and relationship that had been prominent in years before the development of Chimerica.
Alan M. Taylor's collaboration with Moritz Schularick
Bretton Woods II .
Chindia .
Global saving glut .
Group of Two .
Moritz Schularick on German Wikipedia
Sino-American relations .
