● Money Beyond Borders: Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto
Barry Eichengreen
Review via Financial Times
The US dollar’s recent travails — it has fallen more than 10 per cent against other major currencies since the beginning of 2025 — have led to renewed questioning about its future. How long will it remain the world’s premier currency? What might it take to finally knock it off its perch? And, should it fall, what will replace it — a new dominant reserve currency, a basket of quasi-reserve currencies, perhaps even something from the cryptoverse? …
Eichengreen’s suspicion is that, if and when the US dollar in turn loses its mantle, the wounds will more likely be self-inflicted than exacted by a monetary foe. Among the possible fatal harms, he identifies heightened tariffs, America’s escalating fiscal woes, the undermining of Federal Reserve independence, more aggressive and widespread use of financial sanctions and a retreat from longstanding international alliances. The current US president has leaned — sometimes more than leaned — in all these directions.