BloombergOpinion/Stephen Roach//6-14-2020
“Scorn has long been heaped on those daring to question the supremacy of the U.S. dollar as the world’s dominant reserve currency. I certainly received more than my fair share in reaction to a column I recently wrote for Bloomberg Opinion on the likelihood of a sharp decline in the greenback. The counter-arguments were strong and highly political, basically boiling down to the so-called TINA defense – that when it comes to the dollar, “there is no alternative.”
USAGOLD note 1: Roach believes the dollar will decline 35% against other currencies. Our second note is a repost of our comments upon posting the article Roach mentions above.
USAGOLD note 2: If Roach is right, and he often is on the big questions, the logical strategy is to own an asset detached from the currency system under which that ‘exorbitant privilege’ has been exercised. In the same year d’Estaing first complained about the dollar’s special status (1965), French President Charles de Gaulle delivered a speech on gold in which he said “we cannot see that, in this respect, there can be any other criterion, any other standard, than gold. Oh, yes! Gold, which never changes its nature, which can be shaped into bars, ingots or coins, which has no nationality and which is eternally and universally-accepted as the unalterable fiduciary value par excellence.” DeGaulle was talking about the gold standard but his description of gold also explains why it makes a great deal of sense in the private investment portfolio.