Empires die for various reasons but some of the common reasons are:
- Pandamic (yeap), disease destroys its army, economy
- Unable to maintain its territory or enforce its rule
- Social, Cultural and political differences
Now, US is a very divided nation, to say the least, and is spending beyond its means. However, USD, the king dollar is the reserve currency and ruled the world. Now the assault on it is from multiple fronts. First EUR, euro attempted it, but Europe is hardly an economic, military power to challenge King dollar. After that Bitcoin emerged. So far Bitcoin survived. Many whose economic welfare is tied to USD opposed Bitcoin (for ex: Buffett) but it is surviving. However, I don’t see this replacing King Dollar.
US has weaponized King Dollar in the form of economic sanctions. Indiscriminate economic sanctions, indiscriminate determination of who can have nuclear weapon (ultimate protection against US Military power) made many countries to recognize to beat US you have to take its economic power. This is the same logic used by Taliban terrorists. Now, countries are enacting currency deals where they agree to settle on their local currencies.
So US response , of course clownish, is
“Switching to national currencies is a violation of the rights of American citizens.” The White House threatened with sanctions those countries that refuse the dollar in mutual settlements.
When will US administration realize the very reason countries are moving away from USD is because of the sanctions??? Don’t count on our politicians or administrators to come to any sense. Like every despot when they realize it, it will be late.
As much as I don’t like balajis and its Bitcoin advocacy, he is raising some serious questions. Some smart, rich folks (for ex: balajis moved to Singapore) are moving out of US. Not everyone has an option to leave the country. But we all have options to protect our investments against USD losing relevance.