Showing posts with label TheStreet.com. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TheStreet.com. Show all posts

Sunday, April 30

Fate of US Dollar


For many weeks, speculation has been circulating about the decline of the dollar, the currency of world trade since the end of the Second World War.

The U.S. dollar is in decline -- or at least such is the speculation that has been circulating this year.

These rumors are fed by various articles, starting with headlines saying that Russia is now considering using China's yuan for its global trade. Then talk followed that Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally, was considering charging in yuan for its oil exports to China.

Things accelerated: France was reportedly considering buying gas from China with yuan, while Brazil and Beijing were considering no longer using the U.S. dollar in their bilateral trade relations.

The avalanche of rumors about the demise of the U.S. dollar was such that some headlines said that the Brics countries -- an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa -- were considering developing a new reserve currency, while India was in the process of settling some trades in rupees.

All this news had a common theme: The dedollarization of the world economic stage was under way.

The greenback had lost or was in the process of losing its place as the top choice in world trade and finance, this theme suggested. It was circulating mostly among conservatives and critics of the policies of President Joe Biden's administration. The death of the U.S. dollar on the global stage was inevitable, they predicted.

The Dedollarization Narrative

This narrative is based primarily on the fact that in the aftermath of World War II, the U.S. gross domestic product accounted for almost half the world's GDP, a situation that placed the U.S. dollar as the main currency of global exchange, store of value and unit of accounting.

But the U.S. economy is no longer as dominant as it was, these critics say, so the reign of the U.S. dollar is also nearing the end.

For Elon Musk, Tesla's (TSLA) - Get Free Report CEO and, in his view, the global CEO, dedollarization is inevitable and the result of the U.S. using the currency as a weapon on the world stage.

One way the greenback is weaponized is the economic sanctions the U.S. imposes on other countries. Consequently, the billionaire entrepreneur says, other countries at some point will no longer want to use the U.S. dollar, to free themselves from dependence on America and its diktats.  READ MORE...