America’s dollar, the world’s problem?

05/17/24 • 24 min

The US dollar is different to every other currency. The dollar is the global reserve asset, and its dominant status means dollar strength has important global spillovers. Paul and Luke discuss why the dollar has been appreciating recently, why this matters, how the dollar became so important, the benefits and drawbacks this brings to the US, and why a potential second Trump presidency could drop the US’s long standing commitment to a strong dollar.

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Macro Bytes - America’s dollar, the world’s problem?

Transcript

Paul Diggle

Hello and welcome to Macro Bytes the economics and politics podcast from abrdn. My name is Paul Diggle.

Luke Bartholomew

And I'm Luke Bartholomew.

Paul Diggle

And this week we are talking about the US dollar; we're going to ask why the dollar has been appreciating recently. Why moves in the dollar are unlike moves in any other currency, how the dollar came to have a dominant role in the global financial system, and how the US’s approach to the dol