The Rise and Fall and Rise (And Fall) Of the US Financial Empire
In 1973, the economist Richard N. Cooper published an essay in Foreign Policy offering “an unconditional forecast about the future of the dollar for, say, the next decade.” He predicted: “At the end of a decade the position of the dollar will not be very different from what it is now. The dollar will continue to be suspect and the struggle to find acceptable ways to rein it in will continue, but generally they will fail, and the dollar will still be widely used both as a private international and as an official reserve currency. … The basic reason for this forecast is simple: there is at present no clear, feasible alternative.” Almost half a century later, Cooper’s forecast still seems like a good bet. The dollar is a bit like democracy: It is the worst global currency, except for all the others.