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Fading of the Dollar's Dominance
The financial crisis has intensified the debate over whether the dollar should remain the world's dominant currency.
(By Mark Wilson -- Getty Images)
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"The dollar may very well see periods of strength in the weeks and months ahead," said Douglas Rediker, director of the Global Strategic Finance Initiative at the New America Foundation. "But in the long run, I think it is clear that it will lose some of its hegemonic status."
This has left room for rising nations such as China to seize a broader role in the global monetary system. Though the Chinese currency remains largely non-convertible -- meaning it cannot easily be used in international transactions -- Beijing has taken steps to sign currency exchange agreements worth $95 billion with South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Belarus, Hong Kong and Argentina. Brazil and China announced in May that they are exploring a similar agreement.
Though it may take years before such agreements have any real impact on the dollar, they are coming at a time when governments around the world may find another potential substitute for their dollar reserves: the IMF's Special Drawing Rights.
The SDRs are a currency-like asset whose value is based on the dollar, the pound, the euro and the yen. They have been issued by the IMF, albeit in highly limited form, since the 1960s to aid nations in need of reserves. In April, however, world leaders including President Obama agreed at an economic summit in London that SDRs should now be used to help stabilize the balance sheets of nations struggling to combat the current crisis.
As a result, the IMF is now set to "print" $300 billion worth of SDRs -- 10 times more than currently exist -- for distribution to nations around the globe. They will effectively be held as reserve deposits by each nation's central bank.
Some, like Bergsten, have argued the SDRs' role should be taken a step further, allowing them to serve as a de facto global reserve currency. Bergsten has advocated, for instance, the idea of nations such as China "trading in" their dollars for SDRs, allowing for an orderly transition away from the greenback without causing a sharp fluctuation in the dollar's market value.
"Like it or not, the dollar is going to lose some of its global status," Bergsten said. "So maybe it's time we just accepted that and figured out the best and most orderly way to make that happen."
