More Interesting Times Coming- Dollar No Longer World Reserve Currency?

A famous curse of the Chinese is "may you live in interesting times." Uninteresting times, such as the 1920's, 1950's, 1990's, or early 2000's, were times of very little upheaval, of steady but unspectacular economic growth, of domestic tranquility, and rather boring cultural changes. Some people though don't like peace, tranquility, steady growth, and static cultural norms- they want change. And once you start changing things, times get interesting.

In May You Live in Interesting Times, I wrote:

Many want Obama to be Lincoln, who, even though he was a great President, was head of a country that descended into a Civil War that was incredibly bloody and socially destructive. They want Obama to be FDR, who was the head of a nation that went into its longest and deepest recession ever and engaged in another bloody and destructive war. Or they want Obama to be JFK or LBJ, both of whom ran a country that was in the midst of some interesting times- riots, strikes, Vietnam, etc. How come liberals and the media don't want to live in the 1980's, that was a long boring time of economic growth and rebuilding of strength. Or the 1950's, when our country returned to white picket fences and normal times (admittedly, I'm too young for this, but I always loved that show Wonder Years). Because those were the boring times under Republican Presidents, and were not times when liberals grew in power.

I wrote this post in 2008, predicting that over the next couple years, this Chinese curse would come up more and more often, now that liberal Democrats controlled the Congress and Presidency and would push for more 'interesting times.' Jonah Goldberg referenced it back then, Powerlineblog referenced it back then, and I've been seeing it referenced many times since. Including today, when I read an article in the Telegraph about how the Age of the Dollar is Drawing to a Close, and after decades of stability and boring uninteresting currency issues, things may start to get interesting as the world drops the US dollar as a reserve currency:

The rest of the world is now openly questioning the merits of a global currency whose value is governed by America's perceived domestic needs, while the growth that once underpinned confidence in its ability to repay its debts has never looked more fragile.


Already, there are calls for alternatives. Unwilling to wait for one, the world's central banks are beginning to diversify their currency reserves. This, in turn, will eventually exert its own form of market discipline on the US, whose ability to soak the rest of the world by issuing ever more greenbacks will be correspondingly harmed.

These are seismic changes, of a type not seen for a generation or more. I hate to end with a cliché, but we do indeed live in interesting times.

The entire article is a good analysis of what could happen very soon- the entire world switching from using the US dollar to some sort of other currency or basket of currencies- but the point is that if they do so, times may get even more interesting in America, and we'll all be regretting the change we made with our votes in 2006 and 2008.

If you're looking for a good book to read about interesting times, read Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett. It's a funny and engaging tale from Discworld about Rincewind and Cohen and chaos theory and world politics and a mad rush through Chinese peasant culture, Japanese martial arts, an group of ancient barbarians with a most unbarbarian plot and revolution that can't help but have things go the right way for them. It loony and fun and a great read.