The mythical story of Damocles, a naive courtier to the tyrant Dionysius the Elder of ancient Sicily, has been making the rounds in Washington circles lately. According to the ancient Greek legend, Damocles was forced by his king to sit at a banquet table under a sword suspended by a single hair to demonstrate the precariousness of the sovereign’s fortune. Consider the much-hyped weapons of mass economic destruction, the holding of U.S. bonds, China has at its disposal against America and it is easy to see why the conventional wisdom is that a Damoclean sword hangs over a humbled superpower. However, on closer inspection, the Chinese sword is much less formidable—and the hair by which it hangs is in fact a sturdy and well-fastened rope.
Full story: Paper Tiger: China’s No Threat to the U.S. – BusinessWeek