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Donald Trump trade advisers plot US dollar devaluation

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  1. ignorabimus
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    I think this a really interesting development in US politics, because historically international perception has been that the dollar's status as global reserve currency has allowed it to borrow...

    I think this a really interesting development in US politics, because historically international perception has been that the dollar's status as global reserve currency has allowed it to borrow both much more money and much more cheaply than other countries. France historically has complained about this quite a bit and called it an exorbitant privilege. It also makes imports substantially cheaper for Americans (although this comes at the cost of more expensive exports).

    There's a major risk here in that the global financial system is extremely dependent on the US dollar (for example treasuries are widely used as a global safe asset), so a rapid devaluation could be extremely bad.

    The Council on Foreign Relations has a brief background overview on dollar dominance.

    7 votes