The U.S. Needs A Digital Dollar

Private or public, a stable stablecoin is needed. And not only for America.

Dateline: Woking, 21st April 2023.

Way in back in 2020, in my book “The Currency Cold War” (available from all good bookshops) I wrote:

What could trigger a “currency cold war” between the various contenders for the dollar’s throne? … it may be that specific triggers (perhaps a regional conflict) might lead to concerted action that compresses the timescale for “mobilisation”.

 Well, you can call me Mystic Dave from now on if you want to, because I also wrote about “the overuse of sanctions as a form of financial warfare, which might already be prompting America’s friends and foes alike to look for alternatives”.

(When I wrote this, everyone was like whatever. But now Janet Yellen tells CNN that “There is a risk when we use financial sanctions that are linked to the role of the dollar that over time it could undermine the hegemony of the dollar” and suddenly it’s news? That’s the media for you, I suppose.)

Anyway, the point is that America needs a digital dollar and not only for efficiency in the domestic economy but for much more important reasons of geopolitical power. But how does it get there?