The spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF will be held virtually this week amid a profound economic crisis spurred by a novel coronavirus. Unlike previous such viruses, this went global in such a destructive way that many countries have responded the same way. Encouraging social distancing, closing non-essential businesses, and enforcing lockdowns. The …
I talked to Rick Santelli on CNBC earlier today about the dollar. A link to the video clip can be found here. Our brief discussion had two components. In the first, talked about the seemingly never-ending quest for an alternative to the dollar. I have argued that the biggest threat to the greenback’s role in …
Cool Video: Weaponization of the Dollar and the Search for an Alternative Read More »
The IMF offers the most authoritative report on central bank reserves on a quarterly basis with a quarter lag. The report, the Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves (COFER), covering Q318 has been released. It may be have been overlooked during the holidays, but if and when the pundits see it, the leading takeaway …
A Word on Q3 COFER–It Might not be What You Think Read More »
I was in graduate school, studying American foreign policy when I stumbled on Riccardo Parboni’s “The Dollar and Its Rivals.” This thin volume showed how the foreign exchange market was the arena in which capitalist rivalries were expressed. More than any single book, it set me on a more than 30-year path. The dramatic world of …
There is nothing quite like a falling dollar to spur talk of the erosion of the greenback’s reserve status. There has been talk for several months that China is preparing in yuan-denominated oil contract (with an embedded gold option). It has not been launched yet, but some observers see it as a blow to the …