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I genuinely hope a whole bunch of countries get together and stop using the USD altogether. Make the Euro the standard for Gold and Oil, etc, stop trading on the US-based stock markets, etc. etc.

America's economy is it's greatest vulnerability, and other countries could do great damage to it if they banded together and gave them the finger back.

There's a school of thought that the "Axis of Evil", invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ongoing antagonization of Iran and Venezuela are all demonstrations to the world at large of the extent to which the US would respond to such a move.

100%.

Australia wasn't going to send troops into the illegal Iraq war... then they did and within a couple of weeks signed never-before-seen trade deals with the US that were extremely good for the Australian economy.

When asked if he was pressured into making that decision or lose all trade with the US, the Prime Minster looked straight at the camera with a "what was I going to do" expression, and said nothing.

> I could imagine a terrorist living in Germany and the US asks for assistance obtaining him and the Germans tell the US to fuck off.

I don't think that will ever happen. Dismantling a terrorist group is such a decidedly good thing that I'm sure everyone can agree on acting together. (Note though that the terrorist threat is greatly exaggerated (like in: it is several orders of magnitude less dangerous than the media implies).)

> It doesn't even have to be a terrorist, it could be a person like Snowden. So, now, instead of assisting the US government, the Germans are actively working against them.

You are kind of mixing positive and negative visions here. Supporting whistle blowers like Snowden should be a matter of course for a democratic nation.

"I could see the Germans investing heavily in developing technologies that prevent spying. Germany could become a place where you learn how to NOT be spied on."

This is already happening. The Washington Post had a story in November about how Berlin has become a new haven for leakers & privacy activists. Of course, it probably now makes Berlin one of the most heavily spied-on cities in the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/leakers-privacy-a...

I still can't imagine, that the current German government will draw any (slightest) consequences to the US behavior. I even think, that they don't believed themselves on a no-spy deal. But it was a clever cover-up to come across the election without to many penalties. And it worked ... German voters did not recognize a thing.

But of course it might harm the US in the future. There might come the day, that people in Germany and in other countries wake up. Also the US behavior hurts them in south american companies and at least in China. The south american people are fed up with the US behavior already!

The US government doesn't realize the implications of their actions. A day will come when the US needs German help, support, or assistance in an area of global importance and the Germans will be very reluctant to help because of this

Presumably you're referring to the US invasion of Iraq.

But I don't think something like the German refusal to cooperate back then is going to happen again. All that matters is money, and German's economy is (solely) based on exports. They need the American consumers for their own good, and German cooperations will make sure they keep their markets.