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King Dollar: The Past and Future of the World's Dominant Currency
An award-winning economic journalist on why the US dollar is positioned to maintain global primacy—and what that means for America and the world
Prophecies that the dollar will lose its status as the world’s dominant currency have echoed for decades—and are increasing in volume. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts claim that Bitcoin or other blockchain-based monetary units will replace the dollar. Foreign policy hawks warn that China’s renminbi poses a lethal threat to the greenback. And sound money zealots predict that mounting US debt and inflation will surely erode the dollar’s value to the point of irrelevancy.
Contra the doomsayers, Paul Blustein shows that the dollar’s standing atop the world’s currency pyramid is impregnable, barring catastrophic policy missteps by the US government. Recounting how the United States has wielded the dollar to impose devastating sanctions against adversaries, Blustein explains that although targets such as Russia have found ways to limit the damage, Washington’s financial weaponry will retain potency long into the future. His message, however, is that America must not be complacent about the dollar; the great power that its supremacy confers comes with commensurate responsibility.
Prophecies that the dollar will lose its status as the world’s dominant currency have echoed for decades—and are increasing in volume. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts claim that Bitcoin or other blockchain-based monetary units will replace the dollar. Foreign policy hawks warn that China’s renminbi poses a lethal threat to the greenback. And sound money zealots predict that mounting US debt and inflation will surely erode the dollar’s value to the point of irrelevancy.
Contra the doomsayers, Paul Blustein shows that the dollar’s standing atop the world’s currency pyramid is impregnable, barring catastrophic policy missteps by the US government. Recounting how the United States has wielded the dollar to impose devastating sanctions against adversaries, Blustein explains that although targets such as Russia have found ways to limit the damage, Washington’s financial weaponry will retain potency long into the future. His message, however, is that America must not be complacent about the dollar; the great power that its supremacy confers comes with commensurate responsibility.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published March 18, 2025
63 people are currently reading
751 people want to read
About the author
Paul Blustein
10 books41 followersPaul Blustein has written about economic issues for more than 40 years. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, Paul spent most of his career reporting for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
Paul's books have received critical acclaim from leading publications including The Economist, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, and the New York Review of Books. He especially loves hearing from professors and college students that his books help make complex economic subjects interesting and intelligible. A resident since 2010 of Kamakura, Japan, where he lives with his wife, Yoshie Sakai, he is the father of four children and in 2018 attained his most cherished status yet--grandpa.
Paul's books have received critical acclaim from leading publications including The Economist, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, and the New York Review of Books. He especially loves hearing from professors and college students that his books help make complex economic subjects interesting and intelligible. A resident since 2010 of Kamakura, Japan, where he lives with his wife, Yoshie Sakai, he is the father of four children and in 2018 attained his most cherished status yet--grandpa.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 4, 2025
As a standalone study of the role of the dollar (King Dollar) in the global economy, this is a very good book for the intermediate reader.
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October 11, 2025Finally finished @paulblustein.bsky.social's latest book, and it's a doozy!
Paul writes clearly and authoritatively, not to mention entertainingly. I've read most of his books, and I always learn so much about how the world works. I wish I could carry in my head a fraction of what Paul does.
This one is, as you might guess, about how money flows internationally and why so much of it is done in dollars. A dizzying array of acronyms and obscure but critical organizations people this book. Who knew money was so complicated?
I love how Paul takes current events and ties them to history. In this one, the stories about the earliest clearing houses in New York and how money was handled in Saudi Arabia in the 1970s both stick with me.
In particular, if you're curious how modern financial sanctions work (and why they don't have unlimited power), you'll love this.
As with all of Paul's books, highly recommended.
Disclosure: Paul is a good friend, so my opinion is biased. Nevertheless, I'm right!
Paul writes clearly and authoritatively, not to mention entertainingly. I've read most of his books, and I always learn so much about how the world works. I wish I could carry in my head a fraction of what Paul does.
This one is, as you might guess, about how money flows internationally and why so much of it is done in dollars. A dizzying array of acronyms and obscure but critical organizations people this book. Who knew money was so complicated?
I love how Paul takes current events and ties them to history. In this one, the stories about the earliest clearing houses in New York and how money was handled in Saudi Arabia in the 1970s both stick with me.
In particular, if you're curious how modern financial sanctions work (and why they don't have unlimited power), you'll love this.
As with all of Paul's books, highly recommended.
Disclosure: Paul is a good friend, so my opinion is biased. Nevertheless, I'm right!
May 28, 2025
Lots of interesting information, a good explanation of why the dollar is dominant and a good argument put forward for why dollar dominance will continue for the foreseeable future.
The author’s personal biases are, unfortunately, clear and this takes away from the quality of the book. The author, while demonstrating clear expertise regarding economic matters, demonstrates what must unfortunately be regarded as near-total ignorance regarding geopolitical matters, most notably the war between Ukraine and Russia.
These concerns aside, the book is sufficiently informative that I would recommend it to others.
The author’s personal biases are, unfortunately, clear and this takes away from the quality of the book. The author, while demonstrating clear expertise regarding economic matters, demonstrates what must unfortunately be regarded as near-total ignorance regarding geopolitical matters, most notably the war between Ukraine and Russia.
These concerns aside, the book is sufficiently informative that I would recommend it to others.
June 3, 2025
A serious disappointment. I was hoping for a thorough discussion of the future of the dollar in the new economic age, especially with the new tariffs and maybe some more detailed look at the prospects for the stability of the dollar with the changes in debt and deficit levels (one way or another) of the United States. Instead, this is a relatively simplistic book about the 'imperial' nature of the dollar dominance, where somehow there is more focus on the impacts of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins than on budget policy.
There is really just one chapter on the history of the dollar pre-Bretton Woods, and it goes through quite a complex history (like the National Bank Act of 1863) pretty quickly. An interesting point there is that before the Civil War, individual banks issued promissory notes that served as currency. There were not redeemed (for us government minted coins for precious specie like gold or silver) always at par - established banks from New York or Boston (where regulators were seen as strict and thus one could rely on the promise of the bank more) were exchanged or traded closer to par than notes from banks at frontier or from smaller and less-well regulated states.
The main point that the author is trying to make in the historical section is that, effectively, until the Bretton Woods conference (or probably the Lend-Lease agreements, but that is not mentioned), the dollar was not a truly internationalised currency. This supports his almost teleological notion of currency development for the rest of the book.
A couple of other themes are present throughout the book. One is that clearinghouses, an important innovation of Wall Street, serve as important chokepoints for the global financial system (especially the Clearing House Interbank Payments System - CHIPS). Large parts of the middle of the book are devoted to the various abilities of the US Treasury to limit trading in dollars, which makes it a financial weapon. Those parts were quite tedious, and even though they were sometimes technical (like explaining the development of the secondary sanction regime against Iran), it was only one part of the sanction policy.
Blustein is very bullish on the long-term prospects of the dollar as the world's reserve currency (or at least one of them). This is because none of the other currencies can come close to the dollar's wide availability and ease of use. He argues that the key to the dollar’s dominance is the wide availability of the ultimate safe asset - the US Treasuries (the opening part of the chapter on the aftermath of the Nixon shock gives a fascinating look inside the Saudi central bank in the 70s that was for meone of the most interesting parts of the book).
None of the other currencies comes even close. Yen limited its own prospects by not opening up earlier: in the 80s, US Treasury officials actively encouraged the internationalisation of yen, through a sharp reduction of barriers into the Japanese financial markets, but were unsuccessful. The euro is engulfed in its own problems and, according to Blustein, is not stable enough. Yuan has a similar problem like yen early on (plus the influence of the lack of rule of law in Chinese financial markets), but also is limited by the fact that China is an export surplus country buying up treasuries, which makes them much less incentivised to actually limit the global scope of the dollar. The Special Drawing Rights, a non-currency developed by the IMF, are just too complex, can only be used by states, and their 'basket of currency nature means that their new issuances are determined by the existing powers. And a development of a 'BRICS' currency is, according to the author, quite absurd, as the countries are too similar in economic policy, geography and financial reality.
All of this does not mean that the dollar will continue to be omnipresent - there might be a wider use of, for instance yuan for specific transactions, like between China and Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But that does not mean a replacement of the role of the dollar.
There are also three chapters on cryptocurrencies, which I found quite boring and not fully address the main premise of the book. The author argues that problems with CBDCs (like the Sand Dollar or ECNY) are their limited uptake, not because of the fear of the encroachment on personal liberties, but just because people do not need them when they have other digital forms of online payments that work just fine. He considers the initiatives of the Bank for International Settment in this area of something akin to a politician's syllogism.
The argument of the end of the book is that the continuing and growing internationalisation of the dollar gives it the responsibility for the stability of the global financial system, which can clash with its domestic financial policy imperatives. This can sometimes be resolved, like with the creation of the special repo (repurchase of US Treasuries, effectively overnight loans used for settlement purposes) facility during early COVID or by the creation of extended credit lines with other central banks, but it might not be so. Also, extended use of the financial weapons might speed up the uptake of alternative currencies and forms of payment, effectively limiting the potency of the weapon.
Overall, the book is definitely not boring, but I would not recommend it to anyone who has some understanding of modern financial history and financial markets, as there is too little that would be novel or particularly insightful.
There is really just one chapter on the history of the dollar pre-Bretton Woods, and it goes through quite a complex history (like the National Bank Act of 1863) pretty quickly. An interesting point there is that before the Civil War, individual banks issued promissory notes that served as currency. There were not redeemed (for us government minted coins for precious specie like gold or silver) always at par - established banks from New York or Boston (where regulators were seen as strict and thus one could rely on the promise of the bank more) were exchanged or traded closer to par than notes from banks at frontier or from smaller and less-well regulated states.
The main point that the author is trying to make in the historical section is that, effectively, until the Bretton Woods conference (or probably the Lend-Lease agreements, but that is not mentioned), the dollar was not a truly internationalised currency. This supports his almost teleological notion of currency development for the rest of the book.
A couple of other themes are present throughout the book. One is that clearinghouses, an important innovation of Wall Street, serve as important chokepoints for the global financial system (especially the Clearing House Interbank Payments System - CHIPS). Large parts of the middle of the book are devoted to the various abilities of the US Treasury to limit trading in dollars, which makes it a financial weapon. Those parts were quite tedious, and even though they were sometimes technical (like explaining the development of the secondary sanction regime against Iran), it was only one part of the sanction policy.
Blustein is very bullish on the long-term prospects of the dollar as the world's reserve currency (or at least one of them). This is because none of the other currencies can come close to the dollar's wide availability and ease of use. He argues that the key to the dollar’s dominance is the wide availability of the ultimate safe asset - the US Treasuries (the opening part of the chapter on the aftermath of the Nixon shock gives a fascinating look inside the Saudi central bank in the 70s that was for meone of the most interesting parts of the book).
None of the other currencies comes even close. Yen limited its own prospects by not opening up earlier: in the 80s, US Treasury officials actively encouraged the internationalisation of yen, through a sharp reduction of barriers into the Japanese financial markets, but were unsuccessful. The euro is engulfed in its own problems and, according to Blustein, is not stable enough. Yuan has a similar problem like yen early on (plus the influence of the lack of rule of law in Chinese financial markets), but also is limited by the fact that China is an export surplus country buying up treasuries, which makes them much less incentivised to actually limit the global scope of the dollar. The Special Drawing Rights, a non-currency developed by the IMF, are just too complex, can only be used by states, and their 'basket of currency nature means that their new issuances are determined by the existing powers. And a development of a 'BRICS' currency is, according to the author, quite absurd, as the countries are too similar in economic policy, geography and financial reality.
All of this does not mean that the dollar will continue to be omnipresent - there might be a wider use of, for instance yuan for specific transactions, like between China and Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But that does not mean a replacement of the role of the dollar.
There are also three chapters on cryptocurrencies, which I found quite boring and not fully address the main premise of the book. The author argues that problems with CBDCs (like the Sand Dollar or ECNY) are their limited uptake, not because of the fear of the encroachment on personal liberties, but just because people do not need them when they have other digital forms of online payments that work just fine. He considers the initiatives of the Bank for International Settment in this area of something akin to a politician's syllogism.
The argument of the end of the book is that the continuing and growing internationalisation of the dollar gives it the responsibility for the stability of the global financial system, which can clash with its domestic financial policy imperatives. This can sometimes be resolved, like with the creation of the special repo (repurchase of US Treasuries, effectively overnight loans used for settlement purposes) facility during early COVID or by the creation of extended credit lines with other central banks, but it might not be so. Also, extended use of the financial weapons might speed up the uptake of alternative currencies and forms of payment, effectively limiting the potency of the weapon.
Overall, the book is definitely not boring, but I would not recommend it to anyone who has some understanding of modern financial history and financial markets, as there is too little that would be novel or particularly insightful.
September 10, 2025
Part of a vein of books that is rapidly growing in popularity on the role of the dollar as a tool of economic warfare, among which are also Nicholas Mulder's 'The Economic Weapon' (more of a history of sanctions), Farrell and Newham's 'Underground Empire' (interesting book on the actual mechanics of sanctions), Edward Fishman's 'Chokepoints' (an in-depth examination of the use of sanctions in the case studies of Iran, North Korea, and Russia).
An important topic but a disappointingly simplistic treatment. The author makes no attempts to hide a pro-American bias, smugly dismisses past dollar doomsayers with the infallible shield of hindsight bias, spends too long on cryptocurrencies (a much better treatment from Eswar Prasad). A bit too much description and too little actual interrogation of interesting macroeconomic implications of continued dollar dominance, like on fiscal deficits, monetary policy, trade/globalisation, and so on.
Readable but probably a bit too simplistic for anyone who already has a grasp of the foundations of financial plumbing.
An important topic but a disappointingly simplistic treatment. The author makes no attempts to hide a pro-American bias, smugly dismisses past dollar doomsayers with the infallible shield of hindsight bias, spends too long on cryptocurrencies (a much better treatment from Eswar Prasad). A bit too much description and too little actual interrogation of interesting macroeconomic implications of continued dollar dominance, like on fiscal deficits, monetary policy, trade/globalisation, and so on.
Readable but probably a bit too simplistic for anyone who already has a grasp of the foundations of financial plumbing.
Want to read
August 13, 2025For Personal Reference:
One of Nick Murray’s 10 essential books
One of Nick Murray’s 10 essential books
September 29, 2025
Totally fine, somewhat unremarkable but not sure what I was expecting. Could’ve done with 50% less crypto talk.
January 4, 2026
Absolutely loved this book. The author was my constant companion, providing short quips and call back jokes to keep me sane.
Although dense at times, I’m sure to a seasoned academic this is light work, for me, I’m proud of my ability to grasp and follow the content. I’m especially fond of the alphabet soup this book churns through, learning each abbreviation is paying dividends in my daily life as I now possess a floor of knowledge to call back to, no longer will I be disengaged by the likes of IMF, NYSE, CBDC, CHIPS, SWIFT, and BIS.
I feel an interest in global finance growing within me, I’m excited to see where it leads.
Although dense at times, I’m sure to a seasoned academic this is light work, for me, I’m proud of my ability to grasp and follow the content. I’m especially fond of the alphabet soup this book churns through, learning each abbreviation is paying dividends in my daily life as I now possess a floor of knowledge to call back to, no longer will I be disengaged by the likes of IMF, NYSE, CBDC, CHIPS, SWIFT, and BIS.
I feel an interest in global finance growing within me, I’m excited to see where it leads.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews