{"id":4770,"date":"2022-11-21T04:56:46","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T07:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nubelserver.com\/?p=4770"},"modified":"2025-05-15T18:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T21:25:23","slug":"currency-wars-and-the-erosion-of-dollar-hegemony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nubelserver.com\/?p=4770","title":{"rendered":"\u00abCurrency Wars and the Erosion of Dollar Hegemony\u00bb by Lan Cao"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fed was certainly not the only major central bank to engage in aggressive monetary policies in recent years, but critics argued that the dominant role of the U.S. dollar in international trade and finance made the Fed\u2019s actions particularly consequential. That raised the third, long-standing issue, of the broad economic implications of the dollar\u2019s international role. Does the dollar\u2019s status asymmetrically benefit the United States (that is, does the dollar provide the U.S. an \u201cexorbitant privilege,\u201d as it was labeled by French finance minister Val\u00e9ry Giscard d\u2019Estaing in 1965)? Does dollar dominance amplify the international effects of Fed policies, or confer special responsibilities on the U.S. central bank?<\/p>\n

This is the concept behind open market operations and quantitative easing. Exchange rates determine the value of a currency when exchanged between countries. A country in a currency war deliberately lowers its currency value. Countries with fixed exchange rates typically just make an announcement. Other countries fix their rates to the U.S. dollar because it’s the global reserve currency. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, most countries abandoned the gold standard.<\/p>\n

Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) Research Paper Series<\/h2>\n

2   Not all countries allow their exchange rates to be market-determined, but that is a policy choice they make. Fiscal policy (in either the easing country or its trading partners) provides an additional potential tool for offsetting the effects of changes in currency values on output and trade. A state wishing to devalue, or at least check the appreciation of its currency, must work within the constraints of the prevailing International monetary system.<\/p>\n