Trump vs. the Dollar
About this episode
Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff makes the case for the dollar's global dominance — and warns Donald Trump is squandering it. Reserve-currency status, he explains, lowers U.S. borrowing costs and underwrites American power: sanctions, intelligence reach, and crisis-fighting capacity. He rejects Trump's claim that a strong dollar hollows out manufacturing, blaming automation and trade patterns instead. But he argues Trump's tariffs, the weaponization of dollar access, ballooning debt, and threats to Federal Reserve independence are eroding the trust the system runs on — inviting inflation, financial repression, and a gradual drift toward a multipolar order with bigger roles for the euro, the renminbi, and even crypto. A central-banker's-eye view of how reserve status is earned slowly, and can be lost faster than Washington assumes.