A short YouTube interview segment (host + Monica Crowley) discussing recent reports that Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other emerging economies may shift international transactions from the US dollar toward the Chinese yuan. Crowley argues that such a move—especially if Saudi Arabia agreed to trade oil in other currencies—would catastrophically undermine the dollar's reserve status, trigger extreme inflation in the U.S., erode American economic and geopolitical dominance, and enable intrusive central bank digital currencies. The piece frames Saudi Arabia as the potential tipping point.
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Vladimir Putin announced this week that Russia will begin using the Chinese yuan for international payments instead of the dollar. Saudi Arabia is also in talks with Beijing to do the same thing. Speaking of Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, they are in talks with Iran as well to consider an economic alliance with China and Russia. And they can even be joining the BRIC countries, which is an acronym for these countries here. Brazil, Russia, India, India, China and South Africa. These countries all have emerging economies. So what happens if our economy and the US Dollar are no longer the world's dominant currency? Former assistant Treasury Secretary and host of the Monica Crowley podcast, Monica Crowley is here to weigh in. Monica, great to see you this morning. Let's start right there. What happens if these emerging economies move away from the US Dollar towards the Chinese Yuan?
Well, good morning. Well, it's great to be with you. And it's really hard to overstate exactly how catastrophic the abandonment of the US Dollar would be as the world's global reserve currency. Look, since the end of World War II, the dollar has been the safe place to go. And it's been backed up by a couple of things. Originally was backed up by gold, but President Nixon took, took us off the gold standard. So there's no hard asset backing up the dollar anymore for the last 50 years, but also been backed up by the strength and economic power of the United States and the fact that oil has always been traded in dollars. If that were to end, that would mean the end of the US Dollar. Look, there is a perfect storm happening right now. Well, the world's reserve currency being that having that status has been a real privilege. But we've abused the privilege by wholly reckless monetary and fiscal policies over many years, certainly over the last couple of years, really devalued the dollar. On top of that, now you do have this perfect storm of Biden's weakness, his war on American domestic energy production, the Ukraine war. And as you point out, because of all of these things, we've got America's enemies, led by China, forming a new economic bloc. And all it would take at this point now, because we're at this pivotal moment, well, is for Saudi Arabia, who has indicated that they're open to this, to say, you know what, we're going to be open to considering other currencies to trade in oil. If that were to happen, there would be a complete implosion of the global economic system, but certainly the American economic system. And if that were to happen, you'd be looking at sky high inflation, just raging Weimar Republic kind of inflation. If you think inflation is bad now, just wait. But more importantly, we would lose our economic dominance and we would lose our superpower status.
Monica, the world's reserve currency. You said it's a privilege for the United States for the dollar to have been the world's currency. What. How does that relate to each individual American? How has that changed or impacted or improved our lives throughout the last several decades?
Yeah, I mean, it's given the United States incredible dominance in the world in terms of the economic system and in terms of trade. It's kept prices down. So whether it's energy prices, whether it's your food prices, the entire global economic system is reliant on the safe and secure dollar. But that is no longer true, again, because we've been printing money like crazy and devalued the power of the dollar and the value of the dollar. But on top of it, now, again, oil is the critical linchpin of this. If Saudi Arabia decides to join with America's en and start trading oil in different currencies, that is going to undermine the entire global economic system. And here at home, you know what it's going to mean for us? It's going to mean raging inflation so much worse than anything we have ever experienced. Well, and I'll tell you, they're setting it up so that they can then come to the rescue by introducing central bank digital currencies. If they were to do that, and the United States already has a pilot program, that means the loss of your individual economic freedom because the government will have total access and control of everything you buy and sell and the ability to turn it off like that.
Ominous warning. I hear you. Saudi Arabia is the tipping point. Oil trading in dollars is the tipping.
