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Our Dollar, Your Problem

by Ken Rogoff · 360 pages · ~6.5 hrs

EconomicsForeign Policy

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Kenneth Rogoff, a leading international economist and former chief economist of the IMF, examines how the U.S. dollar achieved global dominance and asks whether that supremacy can last. The dollar's role as the world's reserve currency gives America enormous advantages: the ability to borrow cheaply, run persistent trade deficits, and use financial sanctions as a foreign policy tool. But Rogoff argues that this 'exorbitant privilege' may be reaching its limits. The book traces the dollar's postwar expansion, explaining how Bretton Woods established dollar hegemony and how that role survived the system's collapse. Rogoff analyzes the challenges from the euro, the renminbi, and potentially from digital currencies. He assesses whether America's growing debt, political dysfunction, and willingness to weaponize the financial system might accelerate dedollarization. The book combines economic theory with policy analysis, accessible to general readers while engaging debates among specialists. For anyone seeking to understand the foundations of American financial power and the threats to it, Rogoff provides essential analysis.

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