What If the Dollar Falls?
Commentary
During the past few weeks, major countries have been moving away from the U.S. dollar, raising doubts about the dollar’s long dominant role in the world. Eight weeks ago, it was just pariah nations like Iran or Russia trying to de-dollarize. Now it’s Brazil, France, even Saudi Arabia—the lynchpin of the decades-long “petrodollar” arrangement.
If the dollar does lose its position as global reserve currency, it will be catastrophic for the American economy. Catastrophic for the Americans people on whose backs 80 years of reserve status was built. And it will subject billions of foreigners, for whom the dollar has meant decades of being bullied, to history’s greatest bait and switch….