US trade deficits recycled global profits back into Wall Street investment.

Evidence

The new American Minotaur’s appetite kept the gleaming German factories busy. It gobbled up everything produced in Japan and, later, in China. This kept Europe and Asia peaceful and prosperous (for now). In return, the foreign (and often the American) owners of these distant factories sent their profits, their cash, back to Wall Street to be invested – an additional form of tribute, which enriched America’s ruling class, despite its deficit. In this way, the Global Minotaur helped recycle financial capital (profits, savings, surplus money) and the rest-of-the-world’s net exports. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 191

Categorization

• DEFINE: This passage defines the ‘Global Minotaur’ metaphor: the US trade deficit as a creature that consumes foreign exports and, in tribute, receives capital back into Wall Street.
• XREF: connects to: Wall Street after 2008 retained global profits without recycling them into productive investment. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 238

Broader Connections

• Wall Street after 2008 retained global profits without recycling them into productive investment. #complicates (0.80) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 238