Preface ix
Chapter 1 Introduction: The Making of a Dominant Currency 1
Part I Past Challengers to Dollar Dominance
Chapter 2 The Soviet Challenge 13
Chapter 3 Japan and the Yen 25
Chapter 4 The Single Currency in Europe 42
Part II China: The Present-Day Challenger
Chapter 5 This Time Is Different 65
Chapter 6 Zhu Rongji's Uncanny Forecasts 74
Chapter 7 The People's Bank of China 82
Chapter 8 Prelude to Crisis 91
Chapter 9 The End of High Growth 96
Chapter 10 The Inevitability of Dollar Decoupling 110
Part III Everyone Else's Problem: Living with the Dollar
Chapter 11 The Lure of Fixed Exchange Rates 117
Chapter 12 Hyperinflation 126
Chapter 13 When Exchange Rate Pegs Outlive Their Shelf Life 134
Chapter 14 Lebanon and Argentina: Unique or Prototypical? 145
Chapter 15 The Tokyo Consensus 154
Chapter 16 Fixed Exchange Rates Redux 161
Part IV Alternative Currencies
Chapter 17 Global Currencies 173
Chapter 18 Cryptocurrencies and the Future of Money 182
Chapter 19 Central Bank Digital Currencies 199
Part V The Perks and Burdens of Being the Dominant Currency
Chapter 20 Perks of Currency Dominance 211
Chapter 21 Exorbitant Privilege or Taxation Without Representation? 219
Chapter 22 Small Ways the United States Helps Countries Deal with Dollar Dominance 229
Chapter 23 Costs of Being a Dominant Currency 236
Part VI Peak Dollar Dominance
Chapter 24 Central Bank Independence: The Bulwark of Currency Dominance 247
Chapter 25 Debtor's Empire: The United States' Achilles' Heel 262
Chapter 26 The Siren Call of "Lower Forever" Interest Rates 273
Chapter 27 The End of the Pax Dollar Era? 289
Notes 293
Acknowledgments 333
Index 335