Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Candice VanLoozen's avatar

I think it’s important to note that while the dollar is not “explicitly” pegged to anything, in 1974 Nixon made sure it was “implicitly” tied to oil through agreements with Saudi Arabia. Shortly after other OPEC nations followed suit. This created what everyone calls the “petrodollar” system, however that is shortsighted. It actually created an entire “energy-dollar” system. Need oil -> buy or earn dollars.

Excess dollars -> buy and sell other commodities, in dollars.

The world’s most in-demand commodities are traded in dollars because of what Nixon did, from oil and other energy resources, all the way down the list to corn, rice, and wheat etc. This is why the United States central bank can “print money” but also why the US Government can run exorbitantly large fiscal debt without hyper-inflation hitting the dollar. Yes, we can still have inflation hit our currency but it is nothing like what we export to other currencies.

A mass exit of USD is unlikely to happen all at once. At most, it will be a decline as the world tries to organize its debt into other currencies.

Stuart Lee's avatar

Impressive post, thanks

233 more comments...

No posts

Ready for more?