For half a century, the United States has garnered substantial political and economic benefits as a result of the dollar's de facto role as a global currency. In recent years, however, the dollar's preponderant position in world markets has come under challenge. The dollar has been more volatile than ever against foreign currencies, and various nations have switched to non-dollar instruments in their transactions. China and the Arab Gulf states continue to hold massive amounts of U.S. government obligations, in effect subsidizing U.S. current account deficits, and those holdings are a point of potential vulnerability for American policy.

What is the future of the U.S. dollar as an international currency? Will predictions of its demise end up just as inaccurate as those that have accompanied major international financial crises since the early 1970s? Analysts disagree, often profoundly, in their answers to these questions. In The Future of the Dollar, leading scholars of dollar's international role bring multidisciplinary perspectives and a range of contrasting predictions to the question of the dollar's future. This timely book provides readers with a clear sense of why such disagreements exist and it outlines a variety of future scenarios and the possible political implications for the United States and the world.

About the Author

Eric Helleiner is Professor of Political Science and CIGI Chair in International Political Economy at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo. He is the author of The Making of National Money and States and the Reemergence of Global Finance, and is coeditor of Economic Nationalism in a Globalizing World, all from Cornell. Jonathan Kirshner is Professor of Government at Cornell University. He is the author of Appeasing Bankers and Currency and Coercion, and is the editor of Monetary Orders, also from Cornell.

Reviews

This book offers great value in presenting different approaches and views on the future of the dollar. And reading through a rather heterogeneous collection of contributions one cannot but agree with editors Helleiner and Kirshner that the field of dollar studies is so ridden with disagreements that it would be virtually impossible to conclude with a coherent, let alone common, view.

-- Paola Subacchi * International Affairs *



Book Information
ISBN 9780801475610
Author Eric Helleiner
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 16mm