The Role of the Dollar in International Trade

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The power of the dollar sustains U.S. imperialism. But rising multipolarity, an overuse of U.S. sanctions, the rise of alternative trading arrangements that sidestep the dollar, and a very obvious crisis of western capitalism have led to panic about a decline in dollar hegemony. What gives the dollar so much power in the first place? What would a world without dollar hegemony look like? What would it mean for those in the imperial core who benefit from this system? How about those in the third world on whose backs dollar hegemony is built? And where does the war in Ukraine fit into it all? 

To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by Prabhat Patnaik, marxist economist, professor emeritus at JNU, and author of many books including “A Theory of Imperialism” and the more recent “Capital and Imperialism: Theory, History, and the Present,” both co-authored with Utsa Patnaik. 

Prabhat’s piece discussed in this episode:

https://www.newsclick.in/us-sanctions-and-dollars-waning-hegemony

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