The Sun is Setting on Dollar Supremacy, and with It, American Power!

• The sun is setting on dollar supremacy, and with it, American power! 
  by Jeremy Warner, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
  A serious alternative to the dollar is still a long way off, but the latest   shenanigans on Capitol Hill have given the search for them renewed momentum!
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  All great empires – from the Greek, to the Roman, the Spanish and the British    – have at their heart a dominant means of exchange which is very much part   of their political and social hegemony. Once upon a time, it was Roman   coinage which was the world’s pre-eminent currency. In more recent times it   was the British pound. Today, it’s the US dollar to which international   investors flock as a safe haven for their money. Highly liquid and   apparently reliable – until recently at least – nothing else comes even   remotely close to the greenback’s dominant position in the international   monetary system.
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  That this position – what Giscard d’Estaing referred to as America’s “exorbitant   privilege” – could so casually be put at risk by politicians on Capitol   Hill is an extraordinary spectacle that may be indicative of a great power   already seriously on the wane.
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  With the pound, the fall from grace was swift. Britain emerged from the   devastation of the First World War an irreparably damaged economic and   military power, with crushing debts and a deeply impaired manufacturing   sector.
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  The dollar was able quickly to usurp the pound’s position. Final defeat for   sterling came with Britain’s decision to leave the gold standard in 1931 –    an economically sensible decision but a psychological turning point for   sterling from which it never recovered.
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  Lack of any credible alternative means it won’t happen so quickly with the   dollar. For all the progress of the last 30 years, China for now remains a   much smaller economy than the US and in any case is nowhere near ready   financially to assume such a role. As for the euro, the dollar needn’t   trouble itself much about this one-time pretender to the throne.
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