To speculate about the possible demise of “King Dollar” seems to have an irresistible allure for financial pundits. Febrile opinions gyrate from “it’s coming with irreversible speed” to “this will never happen”. I have great difficulties sharing the excitement. “World currencies” come and go and the world doesn’t stop for that. Any currency promising to be a reliable medium of exchange, store of value and widely used unit of account can make it. It is the reach of a currency which makes it attractive. Be it the Spanish dollar, a 16th-century global currency and legal tender in the US until 1857, or Britain’s sterling. Even cowry shells had their day.
The US dollar, in existence only since 1913, “conquered” the world after WWII, with the United States powering ahead as the economic behemoth of the world. Most commodities were priced in dollars. This was most…
