The future of the US dollar: Are its days as the world’s dominant currency numbered?

For decades, defying predictions of its demise, the U.S. dollar has been the world’s dominant currency. Nearly 60% of the world’s foreign exchange reserves are in dollars, but that share has been falling gradually, and the evolution of markets and technology have weakened the dollar’s market share in global payments. Is the U.S. dollar’s primacy at risk? Will the rise of central bank digital currencies, cryptocurrencies, and other innovations quicken the dollar’s decline? Will U.S. sanctions on Russia’s reserves lead other countries to put their reserves in other currencies? And, importantly, what might be the macroeconomic impact on the U.S. if the dollar were to lose substantial market share?

Panelists

• Kathryn Dominguez, University of Michigan
• Barry Eichengreen, UC Berkeley
• Don Kohn, Brookings
• Zach Pandl, Goldman Sachs
• and Eswar Prasad, Brookings

Sponsor and more information

This event is hosted by the Brookings Institution's Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy. For more information, visit the event listing on the Brookings website.

Faculty Expert

Kathryn M. Dominguez

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Professor of Public Policy and Economics

Dominguez's research focuses on topics in international financial markets and macroeconomics. A research associate at the NBER, she is also a member of the Panel of Economic Advisers at CBO, the Advisory Scientific Committee of the ESRB, and the Economic Advisory Panel of the New York Fed.

• Kathryn Dominguez
• Brookings Institution
• Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy