New Delhi, Sept. 15 -- When empires unravel, they do so under the weight of their debts. Pax Americana is unlikely to be an exception. Yet, the US has long mastered the art of debt management.

In 1933, it devalued the dollar by raising the legal price of gold, enabling more money to be printed. In 1971, it abandoned the gold standard entirely when its reserves could no longer cover the dollars in circulation. With reserve currency privilege, it financed its trade deficits by printing dollars and recycling foreign exchange inflows into Wall Street, which eventually triggered the subprime crisis of 2008 and scorched Europe for a decade.

The essence of American financial power is summed up in the phrase 'My dollar, your problem.' Empires e...