(Bloomberg) – All around the world, a backlash is brewing against the hegemony of the US dollar.
I’m no great friend of American foreign policy but I have to say they are by no means the only ones at it. Look at France with its two colonial Francs in Africa and the way China uses RMB internationally, especially in Africa again
It s been at least 50 years I’ve been reading that !
Using local currencies is good for the economies themselves, as it gives them autonomy.
However, These governments can weaponize their own currencies too.
So using a 3rd party stable currency to assure value over time and that neither party could manipulate the value makes sense.Also, a lot of economies carrying a stake in each others currency will make going to war more costly (for everyone), meaning that it might serve as a stabilizing factor. I cannot imagine the Yuan replacing the dollar, as China will not hesitate to weaponize it if it suits them.
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There would be no economic power to back up a UN currency, meaning it would be dependent on voluntary participation from the bulk of the member states’ economies, which likely means that it would quickly devolve to either a protest currency used by anti-west regimes, a slightly federated version of the dollar that is responsive to the needs and desires of mainly the US and partially the EU, or it will be dropped/ignored by both the West and the Anti-west and become a currency of minimal value that is used only on the fringes of the world economy. The UN simply does not have the centralized capacity to operate a currency and enforce that currency’s use amongst it’s member states, especially those that already have a hegemony that would be threatened by such a currency
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Largely this doesn’t happen because the US dollar already serves as a good enough reserve currency. There’s always been reserve currencies and unless the US abuses this power too much, there isn’t any real demand for an alternative.
That’s not really how currencies work. They are not just something arbitrary, they are a thing people trade which has value formed by supply and demand. People buy dollars to be able to buy things that are sold in dollars. Same goes for other currencies.
What would be the demand for UN currency? What can you buy with it? How would the price be determined?
The idea that USA somehow hugely benefits from having so much international trade done in dollars is also a bit weak. It does give them some international clout but that’s about it. There are some very complicated things relating to trade balances involved when your currency is the global reserve currency.
The sanctions on Russia are deserved. Trying to apply those same sanctions to China would be incredibly difficult, especially because Europe wouldn’t back them.
Of course, if the US went to war because China attacked an ally, and they were invited to defend against an invasion, that changes the calculation. The aggressor bears the brunt of international sanctions.
Meanwhile I know people in China who are very desperate to get their hands on USD, CAD, EUR, GBP etc.
Anedoctal evidence I know but I have a friend who has strained relations with his relatives in China because he refused to launder if you would call it that money. I think each person has a limit on the amount of money transferred.
I mean these people have never left China, why the hell do they need USD. Make what you wish but until the yuan becomes attractive to their own people other currencies are of no threat.
Because there are limits to how much money you can take out of China, and whenever there’s a limit there’s people trying to circumvent them? It’s not rocket science.
Yes but that doesn’t explain why they would need USD. For example I’ve only exchanged USD once and that was because I was going to a country where it was the legal tender.
I didn’t exchange my life savings for it, 50,000 a year limit is high for someone who hasn’t left China. I haven’t even exchanged 10,000 in my lifetime let alone 50,000. I just keep it in AUD, USD is useless here.
So it points to me that they don’t trust their currency which is what I’m getting at. A currency needs to be trusted by the countries people itself before it can be a threat to any of the established currencies.
Purchase of foreign property, usually.
Again not sure what foreign property would do for them when they haven’t left China and have no plans to do so. They’re almost at retirement age so if they haven’t made any plans…
So the other half of this story was they went around to all their relatives who are based overseas and got them to “store” converted currency in GBP, USD, CAD etc. If it was me I would be converting to the place I’m interested in residing not just anything I can get my hands on.
The other relatives weren’t smart enough or was too under pressure to say no. Also someone storing currency in your name rather than their own even as a relative causes tax issues at the very minimum and other issues if the money has come from a non legitimate means (I’m not inferring this is what happened just saying the worst case scenario on why you shouldn’t deposit money from someone else)
It’s almost always investment/for children’s education/etc.
The only reason some of these countries are pushing for this is because they would like to be able to do what Russia did in Ukraine, without consequences.
Or they see that US has a economical nuclear bomb in the dollar and it’s increasingly more reckless in it’s use and they naturally want to isolate their economies from the fate that Washington just decides that they are not “free”, “democratic” or somehow against US interest and decide to unilaterally sanction them and keep wrecking their economy until US demands are met. You do know that third of world’s countries are under some sort of US sanctions and very few of them were or are on war footing towards anybody. World wants out of the dollar because US is no longer seen as reliable.
All of these countries are either failed democracies or dictatorships. Not sure where you are from, but it’s in my interest that democracy remains strong. If that means sanctioning non-democratic countries when they want to undermine democracies, then so be it.
With how flawed the US democracy is and with how often the US undermines democracy in especially south America. What the US understands as a danger to democracy is more often than not a danger to neoliberalism, Cuba gets sanctioned while Saudi Arabia is embraced doesn’t really speak for the pursuit of furthering democracy.
Also the US has no one actually holding it accountable internationally, just because of military and economic might, so their leaders seem to think their forgein policy is reasonable, while it mostly is a disaster. Sure in Ukraine they are supporting a war where they have justifiable reason to do so, but this recently hasn’t been the case in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq or Vietnam earlier. Militarily forcing democracy and/or neoliberalism on countries doesn’t really work.
Not sure why you are bringing up all the wars the US has been involved with or what US’s foreign policy is. I’m not from the US and never said I agreed with their behaviour. I do, however, agree with protecting democracy through economic or military means.
Nobody is forcing people to use the US dollar. I mean, I know we Americans can be pretty brash and aggressive sometimes, but we won’t invade you just for not using our currency.
Probably.
Saddam wanting to trade oil in other currencies was at least a part in the build up to the invasion of Iraq. The Petrodollar is still a large part of the US’s financial strategy.
Not sure if you are sarcastic, but that is exactly what most wars US created were about.
Patriot moment
Global trade is conducted in US dollars, so they kind of are forced to use the dollar if they want to trade.
Petrodollar is a big incentive
Gold backed currency?
Time for some good American freedom: Death
Fuck the dollar. Nobody knows why the Euro couldn’t do shit to supplant it.
Fuck the dollar. Nobody knows why the Euro couldn’t do shit to supplant it.
I was designed so that it could not. One primary mechanism is that there are stricter limits to money printing with Euro. One needs money surpluses to send to the world if one wished it to be used in third party trade.
