Economy

Tribute and trust: Is the Dollar's reign coming to an end?

The official narrative is taking such a wild detour from reality that you have to ask: are we being gaslit?

Robert Collings

• 3 min read
Tribute and trust: Is the Dollar's reign coming to an end?
Photo by Teng Yuhong / Unsplash

There are moments in economic history where the official narrative takes such a wild detour from reality that you have to stop and ask: are we being gaslit? Steve Miran, the current Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, recently gave a speech at the Hudson Institute that deserves that level of scrutiny.

In it, he suggests the U.S. dollar's role as the global reserve currency isn't a privilege, but a burden. And that maybe, just maybe, other countries should consider ... writing checks to the U.S. Treasury as compensation.

Yes, really.

Miran's argument reframes America’s dollar dominance as a form of economic martyrdom. Because the world relies on the dollar, he argues, America is forced into persistent trade deficits and a hollowed-out manufacturing sector. Therefore, tariffs are not protectionist, but corrective. And foreign governments should contribute more to the costs of this system—in some cases, literally mailing in money.

This is a bold narrative pivot. And strategically? It's not dumb. It plays well politically: American voters are anxious about deindustrialization, and blaming foreigners is easier than admitting decades of offshoring were driven by American corporate shareholder incentives. But economically? Some argue it’s dishonest. And dangerous.

Let's be clear: the U.S. enjoys one of the most advantageous positions in global finance because of the dollar's reserve status. The phrase "exorbitant privilege," coined by then French finance minister, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, wasn't an insult. (Well, okay, it was.) It was a recognition of the U.S.'s unique ability to print a global reserve currency in exchange for real goods and services. Most countries have to balance their books. America gets to run deficits and call it international liquidity provision.

In fact, those trade deficits Miran laments? They’re not an accidental side effect. They're the mechanism by which dollars circulate globally. Foreign exporters sell to the U.S., accumulate dollars, and recycle them into Treasuries and U.S. assets. That global demand keeps U.S. interest rates low and the dollar strong. Yes, this dynamic can put pressure on domestic manufacturing. But to argue that America is being taken advantage of, rather than doing the taking, is to completely invert the flow of economic benefit.

This Wikipedia article contains an extensive list of the significant economic benefit the United States economy receives from dollar hegemony.

Even more provocatively, Miran suggested that countries should engage in "burden-sharing" to support this system. That includes everything from lowering their own trade barriers to sending money directly to the U.S. Treasury. It's the economic equivalent of Samson asking the Philistines to pay him to keep his hair—but only if his hair also powered their banking systems and settled 90% of oil trades.

Technically, Miran isn't wrong about some dynamics: reserve currency status does come with trade-offs. But the net benefit to the U.S. is enormous. The dollar’s role is underpinned by trust in U.S. institutions, depth of capital markets, legal protections, and yes, a military footprint that secures global trade. Undermining that trust—by weaponizing the dollar, demanding tribute, or casually revising economic history—doesn’t reinforce the dollar’s dominance. It threatens it.

And here’s where the timing gets worrying. The dollar’s share of global reserves has already dropped from ~72% in 2000 to ~58% today. Bilateral trade deals in non-dollar currencies are accelerating. China, Russia, and the BRICS bloc are openly building alternatives. No one is dethroning the dollar tomorrow. But history shows reserve status is not eternal. It erodes slowly—until someone says, "I see your dollars and raise you Renminbi."

If Miran's framing gains traction, it could hasten that erosion. Because here’s the truth: the dollar's status is not a divine right. It’s a contract built on trust. When the issuer of the world’s reserve currency starts behaving like an empire demanding tribute, people start looking for other currencies (and nations) to trust.

That’s not just bad economics. It’s bad strategy.

Sources