(Bloomberg) – All around the world, a backlash is brewing against the hegemony of the US dollar.
It s been at least 50 years I’ve been reading that !
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.
Where were sanctions when American thugs raged 20 years of war in the Middle East?
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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
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.
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.
This is why Obama wanted to end the Iran sanctions. Weaponization of the dollar is hurting US economy on the long run as more more country seek alternative methods of payment.
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.
Sanctions don’t hurt dictators, only people. This only makes a country’s population like their dictator more than the US.
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.
Global trade is conducted in US dollars, so they kind of are forced to use the dollar if they want to trade.
Not sure if you are sarcastic, but that is exactly what most wars US created were about.
Patriot moment
Petrodollar is a big incentive
Gold backed currency?
Time for some good American freedom: Death
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.
