Dollarization is in the news again. Sure, if you’ve lived in certain countries over the past 25 years–for whom “currency substitution” has been a daily reality–it never stopped being news to you.
But recent changes in the American political climate have brought an issue, that’d been gaining incremental momentum in recent years, to the forefront. The notion of “de-dollarization,” by a group of nations known as the BRICS (and a growing number of ally nations) have been closely monitoring President Donald Trump’s pre-election campaigning threats–and subsequent imposition, once elected–of heavy tariffs as a strategy to keep the international community brokering in the United States Dollar.
However–and as many have observed–early signs are pointing to this stance backfiring majorly on the international, and domestic, stages. First, by stoking and creating new hostilities toward United States economic policy generally–notably from historical allies and neighbors of the United States, like Canada.
But, more recently (and concretely), has been BRICS nations forging significant trade agreements independent of the United States and our currency–the international currency of choice, at least historically*–with nations for whom “American interests” are not necessarily first priority.
(*Or, at least since the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference)
As you know from prior posts on this site–that is, those post that have permitted me to focus (even briefly) on my actual work here at Harvard, rather than alerting people about the “darker side” of this institution–the History of the United States Dollar is not just a subject of great interest for me, but the topic of my research and quote-unquote “expertise.”
Below is a brief video I created some time ago, and one I invite you view and share, on the complex political and economic (and numismatic) issue of “dollarization.” Though focusing on its implementation in the Western Hemisphere in particular–along with including some unique insights from former Ecuadorian reformist president Rafael Correa’s (in his response to my question) at a discussion here at Harvard–we touch on its broader, global implications in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
It’s also a video for which I may just have to create an update to include these new, and historic, developments–the sudden, unexpected, but seemingly determined actions from the international community to de-dollarize, through a variety of consequential means.
Of course: give me your thoughts on this video, and about a possible update to this or our other videos on the History of Money–in the comments below, on our social media, or via our contact form.
