Why Hasn't The Dollar Fallen? | Lessons from Currency Historian Barry Eichengreen

**Barry Eichengreen** (0:00)
I think we are seeing the beginnings of the decline of the dollar as a global currency, as central banks are trying to hedge their bets, moving out of dollar, US treasury securities into gold and other non-traditional reserve currencies.
The analogy I sometimes use is like an iceberg, which melts very slowly until a whole chunk, big chunks, calve off all at once. So that's kind of the scenario I imagine.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:37)
Bankless Nation, very excited to introduce you to Barry Eichengreen. He has spent 40 years studying how dominant currencies rise and fall. In his new book, which is fantastic, by the way, Money Beyond Borders, it traces the full arc from Cresus to crypto. I'm not sure we're going to get all the way back to Cresus, but Barry, welcome to Bankless. It's great to have you. So I don't know if you collect coins, but I got to tell you, I used to as a child and your book made me want to collect more.
So I had to start a question. Of all of the currencies you talk about in your book, which is the one you would most like to own right now? Which one would you like to buy?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:15)
Do you think somebody's answer might be, oh, I'd love to own the US dollar? Or is there just an incompatibility?

**Barry Eichengreen** (1:23)
No, I think it's quite possible people will be looking back nostalgically at the dollar 500 years from now. Another fact I was reminded by in the course of writing the book is that the dollar hasn't been the dominant currency in the United States for the entirety of this country's history. So Alexander Hamilton famously created the US Mint in the early 1890s, but there was such a shortage of gold and silver in the country before the California Gold Rush and the Nevada Silver Rush that the dominant unit used for transactions were Spanish silver coins, pieces of eight, you know, Spanish pesos or dollars that were cut up like a pizza into eight slices. It was legal tender in the United States as late as 1857
You know, after the Gold Rush, the mint got up and running, but the dollar has not always been with us. And as you imply, it may not be with us forever.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:33)
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