Читать книгу Financial Cold War. A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets онлайн

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At least one former US Treasury Secretary has acknowledged that the dollar's role is a source of great power for the US, since it has allowed the US government to ‘pay lower rates … than it otherwise would’ on its borrowings and ‘enables the country to run larger trade deficits, reduces exchange-rate risk, and makes American financial markets more liquid’.ssss1 Another commentator put it more bluntly: ‘By generating a steady flow of customers who want to hold the currency … it allows the privileged country to … fund a lifestyle well beyond its means’.ssss1

At one time, the dollar was backed by a fixed quantity of gold; however, since President Nixon's abandonment of the gold standard in 1973, the currency has had no intrinsic value beyond ink, paper and faith in the US government and its financial system. That the rest of the world continues to confer what former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing called this ‘exorbitant privilege’ on the US undoubtedly reflects the fact that the dollar-based global financial system has had benefits for other countries as well. However, as we shall see in ssss1, many stakeholders within that system are increasingly questioning whether the costs may now outweigh the benefits.