Our Dollar, Your Problem

A leading economist explores the U.S. dollar's inexorable postwar global expansion and argues that today's outsized footprint may portend greater financial instability at home and abroad

The U.S. dollar has held supremacy in the global financial system for over a century, and while its era may not be over, it is fraying at both the edges and the center. Drawing in part on his own experiences, including with policymakers and world leaders, the economist Kenneth Rogoff animates the remarkable postwar run of the dollar-how it beat out the Japanese yen, the Soviet ruble, and the euro-and the challenges it faces from crypto and digital currencies, the possible end of reliably low inflation and interest rates, and the fracturing of the dollar bloc.

In examining how the dollar has long prevailed despite most countries' frustrations with the system, not to mention U.S. missteps and arrogance, Rogoff shows how outsized power and exorbitant privilege can lead to greater financial instability-not just abroad but also at home.