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FILE PHOTO: Japanese Yen and U.S. dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken March 10, 2023.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

How long can Japan prop up the yen?

Japan’s currency slipped to 160 yen to the dollar on Monday, its lowest rate since 1990, triggering a government intervention and threatening Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s position.

Voters are frustrated by Japan’s high cost of living, but a change in leadership is unlikely to alleviate the pain. The heavily populated island has few fossil fuel reserves, and it must import food and energy from abroad. That means when the yen weakens, ordinary folks see their bills shoot up.

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A one thousand Argentine peso bill sits on top of several one hundred U.S. dollar bills

REUTERS

Will Argentina adopt the US dollar?

Argentina on Monday unveiled new emergency measures to fight its 109% inflation rate and support the ailing peso amid rapidly dwindling foreign currency reserves and growing fears of a devaluation.

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Jess Frampton

The dollar is dead, long live the dollar

Every now and then, a story about some country seeking to diversify away from the US dollar kicks off a frenzy about the inevitable collapse of dollar dominance. Lately, there’s been more than a few such headlines, including:

Naturally, these have provided a fertile ground for gold bugs, crypto shills, hyperinflation truthers, techno-libertarians, anti-imperialists (read: anti-US zealots), and run-of-the-mill grifters to stoke fear about the dollar’s imminent death and its supposedly catastrophic consequences for the United States and the global economy.

But even mainstream media outlets and smart, well-meaning analysts have gotten swept into the current wave of hysteria.

Doomsayers offer numerous reasons for the dollar’s demise. They point to everything from China’s meteoric rise to superpower and the emerging multipolarity of the global system, to America’s stagnant productivity growth, chronic fiscal deficits, monetary expansion, growing debt burden, trade wars, financial fragility, and imperial overreach, to challenges from disruptive technologies like central bank digital currencies and crypto-assets.

Yet rumors of the dollar’s death are greatly exaggerated. Going by most usage measures, the dollar remains incontrovertibly dominant in global trade and finance, if a little less so than at its apex.

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GZERO Media

The Graphic Truth: The tumbling British pound

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’s recent attempt to stimulate the country’s inflation-ridden economy by pushing for massive tax cuts has sent the markets into a tailspin and caused the British pound to plummet in value against the US dollar. But even before this episode – and the government’s subsequent policy U-turn – sterling had been steadily declining amid the Brexit fallout. It also doesn’t help that the US dollar is at its strongest level in years. We take a look at the value of the British pound against the greenback since 2000.

GZERO Media

The Graphic Truth: The strong greenback

Developed and emerging economies alike have seen the value of their currencies plummet in recent months due to the economic reverberations of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Food and fuel shortages have put upward pressure on prices, and inflation has soared to record highs in some places. While inflationary pressures are surely being felt in the US, the greenback has reached a two-decade high compared to other major currencies. This is in part because the US Federal Reserve’s measures to curb inflation have boosted investor confidence. However, a strong US dollar can have painful consequences for other states, particularly import-reliant ones, because most global commodities are priced in US dollars. We take a look at the value of currencies used in the world’s largest economies compared to the US dollar before and after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Paige Fusco

The Graphic Truth: The 20-year euro vs. US dollar race

On Tuesday, the US dollar reached parity with the euro for the first time in 20 years. The euro's recent slump has a lot to do with high energy prices, fears of a looming EU-wide recession, and the European Central Bank dragging its feet on raising interest rates to tame inflation. Over the past two decades, though, 1 euro has consistently been worth more than 1 dollar because ... that's what the forex market decided, regardless of the strength comparison between the two economies. We take a look at how the euro has performed against the dollar since the EU launched the (physical) single currency on Jan. 1, 2002.

Are we entering a post-dollar world?

Are we entering a post-dollar world?

The U.S. dollar reigns supreme among all currencies in global trade and finance.

What does this mean? Only that the dollar is the currency of choice for most economic activities conducted around the world, including those by and between non-U.S. entities. For instance:

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Does China's rise have to mean America's decline?
Does China’s Rise Have To Mean America’s Decline? | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Does China's rise have to mean America's decline?

The US and China are as wary of each other as they've ever been. But the Chinese think they are on the rise, while America is declining.

On this episode of GZERO World, Ian Bremmer talks to billionaire Ray Dalio, head of the world's largest hedge fund, who thinks rising US debt, a widening wealth gap among Americans, and the meteoric rise of China all play into Beijing's plans to overtake the US as a global superpower.

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