Paul O¡¯Neill, a former U.S. Treasury secretary, said that if America ever dropped the strong-dollar policy, he would hire a brass band at Yankee Stadium to mark the proclamation.
O¡¯Neill had reservations about the mantra, but ultimately fell into line. The musicians didn¡¯t make it to rehearsal on his watch and Washington¡¯s support for greenback primacy lived on, with the odd tweak every now and then.
Challenges to the dollar¡¯s vital role in the world economic and financial system are often said to be, if not imminent, then over the horizon. But somehow they never quite materialize. Don¡¯t expect any of the current noise about movement toward a currency shared by the BRICS nations ¡ª Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa ¡ª to amount to much. If any of these were to be the foundation of a single unit of exchange, it would likely be China. Precedent isn¡¯t encouraging: Seven years after the International Monetary Fund added the yuan to its basket of reserve currencies, it accounts for a very minute share of the global cache.
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