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An increasing number of financial experts are saying the United States dollar is no longer a reliable and dependable currency – and that its downfall is inevitable. There are even some experts who think the dollar is so unstable that the Chinese Yuan will soon become the world’s reserve currency, or currency of choice.
“Our addictions to debt and cheap money have finally caused our major international creditors to call for an end to dollar hegemony and to push for a ‘de-Americanized’ world,” investment advisor and financial strategist Micheal Pento wrote in an op-ed piece for CNBC.
Others agree.
“In my view the dollar is about to become dethroned as the world’s defacto currency basically,” Canadian billionaire investor Ned Goodman said. “We’re headed to a period of stagflation, maybe serious inflation, and the United States will be losing the privilege of being able to print at its will the global reserve currency.”
Goodman believes the US already is in another recession. The unemployment numbers are understated and the “real” unemployment number likely is closer to 15 percent, he said.
Over half of 200 international institutional investors surveyed by the Economist think that the Yuan will eventually replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The reserve currency is the money most commonly accepted for international trade.
Why Reserve Currencies Matter
Having money with a reserve currency status enables a nation to dominate and control the world’s financial markets, as their currency is used for international trade and transactions. The US has the ability to maintain a $17 trillion national debt largely because the dollar is the reserve currency.
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A nation with a reserve currency can simply print money to pay its debts.
In past centuries nations such as Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal lost their status as super powers in part when their money lost reserve currency status. Reserve currencies collapse because people no longer trust or believe in the governments that issue them.
Goodman says that the US dollar became the reserve currency in the 1970s because Saudi Arabia agreed to only accept only the dollar as payment for oil. Goodman noted that at least one major producer, Russia, is now accepting Yuan in payment for oil.
Goodman was referring to a deal that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin made last May. Under the terms of deal, Russian companies can borrow money directly from China in exchange for oil.
The US dollar once was backed by gold and silver, Goodman said, but now is “backed by nothing.”
Australia Starts Using Yuan
One of America’s oldest and closest allies may have taken the first step to ending the dollar’s reign as the reserve currency. CNBC reported that the Yuan will now be traded in Australia’s financial markets. Among other things that will let Chinese customers pay Australian firms in Yuan. China is the biggest market for Australia’s exports such as iron and coal.
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The Australian government has endorsed the deal because China is Australia’s biggest trading partner. Arthur Sinodinos, Australia’s Assistant Treasurer (treasury secretary) even went on CNBC’s Asia Squawk Box show to endorse the deal.
“It’s a big vote of confidence by both countries in the future of the relationship,” Sinodinos said. Not even recent economic problems in China seemed to dampen Sinodinos’ enthusiasm for the arrangement.
“There’s no doubt that the Chinese authorities are having to manage issues in the financial sector to make sure that growth is sustained, but they’ve shown great skill at that in the past they were very adept at the fallout from the global financial crisis,” Sinodinos said. In other words, Sinokinos believes the Chinese are doing a very good job of managing their economy and their currency is reliable.
How will the Dethroning of the Dollar Affect You?
Observers disagree widely on how the end of the dollar’s reign as reserve currency would affect the US economy and average Americans. Retired neurosurgeon and pundit Dr. Ben Carson thinks it would turn the US into a third world nation and lead to unrest that would lead to martial law, as Off The Grid News recently reported.
Goodman believes there will soon be a massive sell off of US dollars that will lead to inflation. He also suggested a way for people to protect their assets.
“The Chinese have three and a half trillion US dollars and they’re spending these dollars as quickly as they can, and it will not be long before the rest of the world and the US will be thinking likewise. I do.” Goodman said.
In the 1930s, everyone wanted US dollars, he said, but today they’re trying to get rid of them. He thinks that many investors are trying to spend all of their dollars to buy hard assets in order to avoid losing money invested in dollars.
That means average people might be able to protect themselves by investing in hard assets such as gold, real estate or silver, Goodman said.
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