It happened again on Oct 17, at the last minute the United States avoided debt default. But the world is losing patience with the country's dysfunctional leadership.

The world waited with bated breath as the deadline neared. And breathed a sigh of relief when at the last minute the US avoided crossing its "debt ceiling" and a default on its debts. The debt ceiling was raised, and the part government shutdown ended on Oct 17 after weeks of a high-profile standoff between US President Barrack Obama and the Republicans in Congress.

But this relief was mixed with incredulity and frustration.

First, the respite is only temporary; the can has just been kicked down the road. The deadlines for government shutdown and debt ceiling are shifted some weeks away to January and February next year.

Second, this fiasco has happened several times. Each time Congress has given the US president a reprieve of just a few more months, and a new deadline looms again.

The Republicans are adamant, they want to cut the government's spending and its budget deficit, and won't allow it to function unless they get what they want. Previously, Obama compromised and gave in significantly. This time he stood firm and refused to negotiate. The Republicans went too far, choosing to de-fund and damage his landmark medical insurance reform as a condition for lifting the debt ceiling.

Obama decided "enough is enough" and relied on public opinion to win his gamble. The Republicans blinked, as the public heaped the blame on them. Republican leaders in Congress had to eat humble pie and agree to end the shutdown and lift the debt ceiling without de-funding or changing the "Obamacare" healthcare reform.

But third, while the US president finally showed the Republicans who the boss was, the damage had already been done to the US' image as a superpower and the champion of American style democracy. The US governance system has become dysfunctional, with one side of the political divide willing and able to paralyze the government functions led by the other side, using the weapon of withholding approval for the government's budget and capacity to borrow.

Just days before the deadline, the world's finance ministers meeting at the annual IMF-World Bank meeting in Washington highlighted the extreme dangers of a US debt default. Around the world, leaders and analysts mourned the end of the past certainties surrounding the US and its dollar as the world's financial leader.

A widely quoted article in China's Xinhua News Agency was headlined: "Washington's political chaos proves it's time for a de-Americanized world." Commentator Liu Chang said the latest crisis revealed that the US is unfit to govern itself, let alone lord it over the rest of us. "It is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world".

After castigating the US for meddling in the political affairs of countries in its efforts to build a world empire, the writer attacked a self-serving Washington for shifting financial risks overseas, while the debt ceiling crisis "has again left many nations' tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized."

"Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated, and a new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing. Part of that reform is the introduction of a new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant US dollar, so that the international community could permanently stay away from the spillover of the intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States."

As the Xinhua opinion piece indicated, many countries are concerned about the US dollar being the world's dominant currency. Countries holding US Treasuries have been worried about the once unthinkable, that the US would be unable to honor its debt service obligations, thus putting their hard-earned assets in jeopardy.

On the other hand, countries that took loans denominated in US dollars could face punishing terms of repayment if the interest rate on the American dollar shoots up upon fears of a US debt default. Companies, traders and governments that use the US dollar as the medium of exchange would also suffer from chaos in the markets for money, commodities and trade, if there is a massive loss of confidence in the US and its dollar.

Thus, continuing uncertainty arising from feuds in Washington will accelerate the erosion of confidence in the US as the world economic leader.

Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf commented that the US debt ceiling is the legislative equivalent of a nuclear bomb, and that the law needs to be repealed since there cannot be an orderly government under so destructive a threat.

But an editorial in The Independent said that while there is a straightforward case to ditch the debt ceiling law, the same extremists who use it as a weapon of mass destruction will be loath to part with it.

Some Democrat and Republican leaders in charge of budget policy in Congress have been holding talks over the past few days, giving hope that they plan to avoid a repeat of the fiasco when the budget and debt ceiling deadlines re-appear in a few months.

But given the polarization and ideological divide in Washington, chances are that the world will be treated to another round of the battle and the chaos. If that happens, there will be more calls for a new world order.

The author is executive director of South Centre, a think tank of developing countries, based in Geneva.

(China Daily 10/30/2013 page9)