Jim Rickards, an economist and the author of “Currency Wars,” says the U.S. Treasury is actually the biggest threat to the U.S. dollar’s status as a reserve currency. However, he cautioned that an increasing number of countries seeking alternatives to the dollar as a payment currency is also “a big deal,” emphasizing: “The dollar is being attacked from all sides.”
Jim Rickards on U.S. Dollar Losing Reserve Currency Status
Economist and “Currency Wars” author Jim Rickards has warned that despite China and other nations intensifying their efforts to reduce their dependency on the U.S. dollar, the USD’s biggest threat comes from the Treasury. He stressed on “Fox & Friends Weekend” Saturday:
The greatest enemy of the dollar as a reserve currency is not all those other countries. It’s the U.S. Treasury.
Rickards explained the difference between payment and reserve currency. He noted that while many countries are moving away from using the USD for payments, the “bigger threat” to the U.S. dollar is its potential replacement as a reserve currency. He detailed:
The U.S. Treasury has weaponized the dollar, frozen the reserves of the Central Bank of Russia and other countries looking around saying, ‘Hey, what if they don’t like what I did? What if they don’t like one of my policies, are they’re going to freeze my reserves?’
“If you say I want to get out of the dollar as a reserve currency, the only really good alternative is gold,” the economist opined.
Commenting on efforts by China and several other countries to challenge the USD as a payment currency, Rickards said:
That’s a big deal. The dollar is being attacked from all sides. People are looking for substitute payment currencies.
A growing group of nations, which includes China, Russia, India, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia, have made efforts to reduce their reliance on the U.S. dollar. Recently, China and Brazil reached an agreement to replace the USD with their own currencies in trade transactions. Moreover, ASEAN countries have agreed to reduce their reliance on the U.S. dollar for trade settlements, and the BRICS nations are reportedly working on creating a new currency.
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