Dollar Dominance Unravels Under Pressure from Trump Policies
The US dollar's dominance as the world's reserve currency has been slowly eroding over decades. This decline accelerated with recent US policies, including deliberately unexpected actions by President Trump.
In 1944, at the Bretton Woods conference, Harry Dexter White, the head US delegate, imposed an indirect gold standard, fixing the gold price in dollars and pegging other currencies to it. This made the US dollar the world's reserve currency, with most central bank reserves still denominated in dollars.
The US economy has become more financialized and de-industrialized since World War II, accounting for less than a tenth of world goods exports. However, its stock market still accounts for over three-fifths of the world's total market capitalization.