Our fourth and final combined WACMB + OLLI world affairs discussion group meeting of the fall season will be held on Monday, December 4th at 5:00 PM PST via Zoom.
The discussion topic is Whither the Dollar: How shall we be affected if the greenback is no longer the reserve currency? following on the November 20th WACMB luncheon presentation on this subject by Professor Barry Eichengreen from UC Berkeley.
The U.S. dollar has been the world’s reserve currency since 1944, where transactions in international trade and foreign exchange market are mostly conducted in U.S. dollars. But since the Russian invasion of Ukraine when the U.S. imposed draconian sanctions on Russia and froze their foreign reserve funds, other countries awoke to their own vulnerability to the weaponization of the international bank-messaging system known as SWIFT by the U.S. because of the dominance of the U.S. dollar. As a result, many countries have shaved some of their dollar holding and increased their gold holding in their foreign exchange reserves. Last year, leaders of Brazil, India, China, Russia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and a few others have called for creating an alternative means to trade in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. What would de-dollarization mean for geopolitics and the U.S. and the world economy?
If you are interested and have never attended this Discussion Group, just send a request to discussiongroup@wacmb.org to receive log-in information and related study materials.
Come join the conversation!