OUTSIDE THREATS TO THE U.S. DOLLAR

May Outweigh Internal Struggles

The BRICS leaders in 2019, from left to right: Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Modi and Cyril Ramaphosa

Conditions beyond the control of the U.S. government may exist for a collapse of the almighty dollar.

Hyperinflation and government spending hallmarking the U.S. economy over the past three years haven’t helped keep the dollar’s value as stable as economists and everyday Americans had hoped.

However, a more likely trigger for the dollar’s precarious situation exists outside our nation’s borders.

It is the acronym BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

The leaders of this new monetary force are dedicated to challenging the U.S. dollar’s traditional role as the dominating global benchmark all other world currencies are measured against. A stated goal of BRICS is to create its own currency separate from the jurisdiction of the U.S. dollar. It wants a currency that its members can trade between just themselves and, effectively, eliminate the dollar’s influence.

“It (BRICS) would be like a new union of up-and-coming discontents who, on the scale of GDP (gross domestic product), now collectively outweigh not only the reigning hegemon, the United States, but the entire G-7 weight class put together,” wrote Joseph Sullivan – former staff economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Trump administration – in an April 24, 2023, online column for Foreign Policy. “Unlike competitors proposed in the past, like a digital yuan, this hypothetical currency actually has the potential to usurp, or at least shake, the dollar’s place on the throne.”

A Movement Gaining More Nations

Leadership from at least nineteen nations have expressed interest in joining BRICS, according to Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s representative to the group. He was quoted in a Times of