ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the global financial crisis of 2008 presented a unique opportunity to re-visit them and to re-evaluate Stranges core argument about the enduring structural power of the US in global finance. It explains how this power was particularly apparent in two international developments that took place at the height of the crisis: the US international lender-of-last-resort role and the absence of a dollar crisis. The chapter argues that an analysis of these two developments not only demonstrates the validity of Stranges argument about the US position in global finance but also provides a chance to clarify some analytical aspects of Stranges concept of structural power. The experience of the 2008 crisis demonstrates how structural power in global finance provides a number of benefits to the US, ranging from the unique influence it had in politics of crisis resolution to the unusual macroeconomic flexibility that stemmed from foreign support of the dollar.
