In The News

Crash in US Dollar Coming: Bloomberg

Stephen Roach June 9, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic may end the US dollar’s status as primary reserve currency, warns Yale economist Stephen Roach. The pandemic and high unemployment pressure US living standards and spending even as world leaders question US leadership and notions of exceptionalism. Current account deficits since 1982, a recent shortfall in domestic US savings and fast-expanding government budget deficits...

Threat to US Dollar’s Global Dominance: Bloomberg

Joe Weisenthal May 20, 2020
Before Covid-19 emerged, the US dollar’s fundamentals were strong, but imbalanced: The dollar’s share of global transactions grew as the country’s share of worldwide gross domestic product declined. Some analysts suggest that US policymakers abuse the dollar’s dominance with overspending and massive debt. Relying on the dollar may have become habit for some countries, explains Joe Weisenthal for...

Investors Come Back for Bitcoin: Financial Times

Eva Szalay and Laurence Fletcher February 10, 2020
Bitcoin’s excellent performance in 2019 has attracted investors from banks and asset managers once again, despite past worries about the currency’s reputational risk, lack of regulation, and volatile returns. In 2017, bitcoin went above US$20,000, prompting Wall Street banks to rush and develop their own digital currencies with blockchain technology. CME Group launched the first futures on a...

Crumbling Global Order: Wall Street Journal

Greg Ip August 14, 2019
Major shifts in world systems can result in global downturns, argues Greg Ip for the Wall Street Journal. This was the case for the end of the era of cheap oil but not the advent of the internet. Increasing resistance to globalization and open markets fueled by nationalism and populism – and a general decline in diplomacy with Brexit, the US-China and South Korea-Japan trade wars, divisions in...

China's Central Bank Saves the Day: Forbes

Kenneth Rapoza August 6, 2019
A trade war and US tariffs have eroded the value of China’s currency. The US president announced tariffs and global stock markets declined. The US Treasury Department designated China as a currency manipulator, and China’s central bank announced removing about 30 billion yuan, or $4.2 billion, from the Hong Kong market. China denies the currency manipulation charge. “Many emerging market central...

China Hits Back at US on Trade: Bloomberg

Malcolm Scott, Kevin Hamlin and Tian Chen August 5, 2019
The trade war is not ending quickly and tensions grow after the US president announced a new round of tariffs as of September 1. China let the yuan tumble to seven per dollar, the lowest level since 2008. Donald Trump had accused China of currency manipulation, but China may be giving him a lesson in market forces - despite the risk for capital flight. China’s state-owned enterprises will also...

Dollar Strength Not Born in the US: Financial Times

Bhanu Baweja July 18, 2019
The US dollar remains strong despite declining growth and bond yields in the United States and the world. Global markets may have more control than the US government over the value of the dollar. “Faced with weak growth in the rest of the world, investors gravitate to US bonds and defensive equities, and the dollar strengthens,” explains Bhanu Baweja for Financial Times. The Trump...