The president-elect wrote that the coalition of non-Western countries “should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy” if it backs a currency other than the U.S. dollar.
I am starting to think about that Trump just learned what a tariff is during this election cycle. Still has no idea how they work, what their purpose is, when they should be used, nor how they impact local and global economies but, gosh darn it, if he isn't excited to show off his new knowledge.
Maybe if they have him write out the word "TARRIF" on a piece of paper and put that paper on the white house fridge, he can be proud of it everyday and be able to move on to his next vocabulary word.
No "like", he is. Russia and China want to devalue the dollar and replace it as the world currency.
Obviously Russia is unlikely to achieve that, but I'm sure China encourages the use of RMB in their global operations, like in their belt and road projects.
Russia benefits from a stronger US dollar insofar as its oil and gas exports are settled in that currency. The more valuable the US dollar is (as measured against the ruble), the more rubles Russia's exports end up yielding — or the better they compete with other producers in international markets.
I was going to say epic, but that starts with an E. If we want the word after it should start with an H. 'The Heavy Depression'? That way we can start to name them like hurricanes. The next could be 'The Imploding Depression', followed by 'The Jumbo Depression'.
For those with enough wealth, it's a win-win. Either the dollar stays strong and you continue to trade assets/stocks/bonds accordingly, or it craters and you invest in cost-competitive labor on par with India and China.
In the latter case, while foreign goods are priced out of reach, a booming manufacturing sector will come in and "save the day" in states with poor worker protections/rights. The real magic trick is making sure you (the 1%) are in the room when the decisions are made to hold or fold before the general public knows anything about it.
If a trading bloc abandons the USD, that means they are less interested in trading with the US. Slapping a tariff in them means that they will be even less interested.
Are you seriously saying that the capitalists from BRICS countries are interested in justice, fairness, and cancelling slave owners as opposed to their own economic self interest while jostling for position with western capitalists about who should be higher in the pecking order of exploiting the global working class? Because if you're serious about that, I would love to trade you some magic beans for your cow.
No he's thrown 2000% tariffs around at least once in the last few months. Fortunately for all involved he seems to have stopped doing that and switched to something a tiny bit less stupid.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the world needs a neutral reserve currency, not one issued and controlled by whatever country happens to be the dominant superpower.
I think this is the only way the capitalists can make their global, free market work. If the capitalists were smart, they'd want a neutral, global reserve currency. But, since most capitalists aren't smart, it will probably never happen.
Who would issue it? What would it be backed by? Gold is globally valued due to its material value, but good luck getting your local coffee place to take it.
Congratulations, you've stumbled upon the one place where cryptobros would have a point if they weren't mostly trying to make their "currencies" be investments rather than actual currencies.
It would have to be issued by some world central bank.
Money doesn't need to be backed by anything, necessarily. Or, I guess you could say money is "backed" by all the goods and services available to purchase.
Switching to a "currency" that has never been stable and has a huge volatility problem? Sorry, I want that gallon of milk I bought in the supermarket to be roughly the same price when I need more next week than when I got it this week.
It's very telling that most advocates of Bitcoin are very happy to volunteer how much money they've made investing in it. That's not how currency is supposed to work.
To the contrary: the value of the US dollar, as measured against other currencies, has surged in the past weeks amidst Donald Trump's announcements of tariffs, because markets expect them to bump prices and higher prices, in turn, would could prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, just as we saw in 2022.
TL;DR: higher tariffs => higher prices => Federal Reaerve raises interest rates => US dollar appreciates
The incoming Trump administration could counter this dynamic by changing the mandate under which the Federal Reserve has been operating for about a century and bringing it under the executive, stripping it of its independence.
I don't know if you noticed, but the B stands for Brazil and those 2 countries aren't exactly buddy-buddy. Treaties are more than their constituent members.
I don’t think the BRICS are interested in giving up on the dollar. Two of those countries have some of the biggest dollar reserves there are outside of the US.
I think they’re more interested in bilateral trades/payments using their own currencies.
They absolutely are - the non-American aligned countries are afraid sanctions would prevent their ability to trade at all and want a better medium for exchanging goods. Everyone has seen the damage sanctions caused to Russia and are afraid of what might happen to themselves.