(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 !
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
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
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.
Where were sanctions when American thugs raged 20 years of war in the Middle East?
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.
