The Dollar’s Exorbitant Privilege Is on Borrowed Time

Just how durable is the dollar’s preeminence, and how much would it matter if the currency was dethroned? Until recently, these questions could be confidently dismissed as theoretical curiosities: All very interesting, but the world economy has organized itself around the dollar for decades and, contrary to numerous failed predictions, this isn’t about to change.

President Donald Trump’s all-fronts assault on business as usual in international relations has cast things in a different light. Sometimes, the unthinkable happens.